


Reset Aura, Bloodlines, and Grim

by DefconDeceiver



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), RWBY
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 22:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 58,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13374840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefconDeceiver/pseuds/DefconDeceiver
Summary: Pokemon and Rwby Crossover that answers Crossoverpairinglover's "Reset Bloodlines. Giovanni and Ghetsis version challenge". Ash has the daunting task of having to going back to save his world, made even harder by the process radically changing his world and connecting it to another world full of bloody evolution. Good thing he finally learned how to use his aura from veteran Huntsman Taiyang!





	1. Space-Time Distortions can be Fickle

 

 

 

 

 

 

**This crossover work was inspired by my love of the RWBY web series and "Pokémon Reset Bloodlines" by Crossoverpairinglover (You can use it's TV tropes page to view the various works associated with it), who has generously given me permission to borrow ideas for this story. Please enjoy!**

**UPDATE!: As of April 10th 2017 the third chapter of this story makes it so that this crossover partially answers Crossoverpairinglover's "Challenge number 56: Pokemon; Reset Bloodlines. Giovanni and Ghetsis versions" As far as the established guidelines go (which can be found on Crossoverpairinglover's Bio page), I'll be following guideline numbers; 1, part of 3, 4, 5,6 , 7 or part of it, 8, 11, 12 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19.**

* * *

Ash a tan skinned young man wearing a red hat, jeans and a black shirt was walking up to the front desk of the Pokémon center he was in. He and his friends had checked in their Pokémon earlier and were getting something to eat in the meantime. Ash had finished his food first. Right after he had finished scarfing down his meal the intercom had come on and asked him to report to the front desk. As he approached the front desk he saw the local Pokémon center's Nurse Joy fussing over a fidgeting yellow mouse with a lightning shaped tail. "What's got you so anxious Pikachu?"

Pikachu gave a worried "Pika Pi" as it jumped off the counter, worrying Ash as he caught Pikachu in his arms. Thankfully Nurse Joy decided to explain the situation. "A lot of the Pokémon have been getting overly anxious, like when a storm approaches. They often calm down when they're back in their pokéballs. Since your Pikachu is among the rare few who find pokéballs extremely uncomfortable, the best thing is for it to be with you."

"Pika," Pikachu whined a little. Ash looked down to his longtime friend and remembered another time when Pokémon had reacted badly to very bad weather conditions. He decided to voice his concerns to nurse joy. "I was at Shamouti Island when that crazy weather happened a while back. The Pokémon reacted pretty badly at the time."

Nurse Joy looked surprise to see he had gone through something like that. She quickly realized what he was implying. "The overall reaction is more in line when something unnatural is effecting them. Like if abnormal power fluctuations from a power plant ends up causing nearby steel and electric types to feel uneasy from how unnatural the electromagnetic waves feel. Only in this cases it seems that something unnatural or unusual is happening that's making all of them uneasy." Nurse Joy looked down in worry at the last part. "Given the situation we checked and healed up your Pikachu first and called you. We'll call your party when the rest of your Pokémon are done," Nurse Joy stated as she left the room to go back to work.

"Thanks, I see you then." Ash replied as began turning away. He walked towards the center of the currently empty lobby. From there he could see out the glass doors to the outside. It was midday and only slightly cloudy outside. "Hmm, doesn't look like a storm is rolling in." Ash noted. "Pika, Pikachu," Pikachu commented on the matter. Ash felt like rubbing the back of his head, "Yeah, knowing our luck we should expect to have to weather a storm if there's any warning. Let's hope a Tornado doesn't rip the roof off the building we're in again." "Pi," Pikachu sighed at how he and Ash had gotten way too use to dealing with certain types of dangers.

Ash turned around to start walking back to his friends, only to stop when he noticed something. "Hey is it me, or is the furniture missing?" "Pi?" Pikachu asked confused as it started to turn its head back and forth. "Pi!" Pikachu exclaimed as sunlight suddenly stopped coming in from behind them. Ash turned around to face the glass doors again. "Hey where did the Sun go!?" Ash exclaimed as he could see the night sky and the stars, until the stars started disappearing as well. "And where are the stars going!?" "Pika?!" More worryingly the ground was disappearing in the horizon, and whatever was happening it was rapidly approaching their location. Ash and Pikachu shut their eyes and screamed as they braced themselves. Only to stop when they felt more than saw a quick flash of light and the odd sensation of the teleport move.

* * *

"Good, you here." Ash opened his eyes at the sudden voice. He looked around to see he was in a very large white crystalline hall. In front of him stood a majestic creature with white skin accented with gold. A creature some believed to be responsible for the creation of the universe.

"Arceus," Ash stated in awe. He further looked around. Standing next to Arceus was a blue and steal dragon standing on its four legs, and a pearl white and purple dragon standing upright. Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia were all sending out energy into a shining pool of circular energy in front of them. Floating around ash and Pikachu were three spirit like fairy creatures that were pink, yellow, and gray-blue. It seemed that Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf had teleported him here, where ever here was.

Suddenly there was a large boom and the entire hall shook violently, causing Ash and Pikachu to fall down. "What the heck was that?!" "Pika!"

"That," Arceus stated while looking back at Ash, "is the reason I had the lake trio retrieve you. The world you know and love is about to come to an end, and you can blame Cyrus for it."

"The leader of team Galactic?" Ash asked with disbelief. "I thought he was gone!"

"Gone from your plane of existence." Arceus clarified. "He wandered into a portal that was created from summoning these two" Arceus gestured to Palkia and Dialga, both of which grunted at the bad memory. "The portal lead to a pocket dimension. Both Palkia and Dialga destroyed the pocket dimension in order to eliminate the threat Cryus posed. Unfortunately it seemed that Cyrus had already slipped into a different plane of existence. The likes of which would drive any normal human insane, only his mind was so warped that he began to see and comprehend the natural space time forces that make up our reality. While we thought Cyrus was no longer a threat, he started making small changes. Then he made changes that where as big as anime and video games retcons. Then he made his move to shatter reality to remake the world as he sees fit."

"You're going to be able to undo all of it right?" Ash asked worried.

"Cyrus bid his time well, and found the necessary precautions to our interference." Arceus lamented. "We currently cannot stop or rewind time to prevent this from happening. Nor can we simply alter or rewrite the pages of history to prevent this. Cyrus will be able to erase us from existence before we will be able to make such attempts."

"So what can you do?" Ash questioned while desperately hoping for some good news.

"Once we noticed what was going on Dialga immediately slowed down the relative time rate of the changes Cyrus was making." Arceus explained. "That bought us time to formulate a plan. A plan we're going to need you for."

"Me?" asked a surprised Ash. "Why not ask someone like Cynthia to save the world? I've never managed to win an official Pokémon League!" Ash looked down as Pikachu put a reassuring arm on Ash as a small amount of angst Ash had buried deep down came up. "And despite all I've accomplished, I've always made stupid mistakes along the way and I've lost when I should have easily been able to win. Someone who makes as many as many stupid mistakes as I do should be the last one to help out when a single screw up means the world and everything and everyone I love in it will be gone forever.

"Cynthia and the other champions of her caliber were erased from existence before we even knew what was happening." Hearing that made Ash feel even worse. "But even if they were still around, we would still consider sending you." Ash looked up in surprise at this.

Suddenly energy pooled in front of Ash to produce an image. The image showed him standing in front of several of his Pokémon, holding a Pokémon league championship trophy. From the image came an announcer's voice. "And in an amazing turn of events, Ash Ketchum of Pallet town has defeated Tobias and his legendries to win the Pokémon League."

"What is this?" asked a confused Ash.

"I told you Cyrus started by making small changes," Arceus informed. "He started by making changes to your life. Nearly every odd loss you've had since you stopped Cyrus was because of him choosing to mess with you to gain the knowledge he needed. Not to mention the blessing Ho-oh gave you on your first day as a Pokémon trainer actually helped to hide his actions. "

"Blessed me?" Ash was understandably surprised to hear that a legendary Pokémon he had never spoken with would do such a thing. "It would help explain why I've seen so many legendary Pokémon, but how does a blessing from Ho-oh help hide Cyrus changing reality?"

"So long as you kept making it to the Pokémon League but didn't win the trophy, the prize money from participating and the winnings from the gyms would ensure you could repeatedly go on to new lands and new Pokémon Leagues. This would ensure that the adventure you set out on your tenth birthday would never truly end. We found it easy to believe that in your heart, a never ending adventure was what you really wanted and that all the changes surrounding you were the result of Ho-oh blessing ensuring it. Maybe it was Ho-Oh's blessing at some points in your life, but we know Cyrus did make most of the changes that caused your unusual loses after the events at Spear Pillar."

It was a lot to take in so Ash decided to focus on the positive. "So every fight I've lost since then was because…"

Arceus gave a short laugh and dispelled the image. "No, not every loss. There were a few every so often that you lost completely on your own accord, no one's perfect. Not to mention you can have a problem with being too overconfident." Ash had to sigh both at that remark, and when he saw Pikachu give a sagely nod in agreement at the overconfidence part.

Arceus gave another chuckle at the antics before continuing on. "Ash you've literally saved the world before and Shimanti is only one of a long list of examples, and you gone out of your way to do countless other heroic endeavors. When someone else was in trouble you would selflessly go out of your way to help them regardless of the danger to yourself. It's that very reason why Azelf appeared before you," Azelf gave a nod at this "why you made such a great chosen one, why other legendary came to favor you, why you possess great talent at leading others through danger situations, and why Ho-Oh blessed you to begin with."

Ash smirked and beamed with restored confidence. "OK what do I have to do to help you save the world?"

"We start by…"

**BOOM**

Arceus was cut off as once again, an explosive force rocked the great hall they were in. This time though the tremors shaking the place didn't die down, but remained. "We don't have much time" Arceus stated with urgency. He turned his head back to the pool of energy. He kept his eyes on the work before him as he continued to speak to Ash "Luckily were close to being done here. We'll be getting around the methods Cyrus blocked us with what you might call a hard reset of our reality, alongside a time distortion that will cause certain events to happen later on. If Cyrus is going to make it so we can't directly change the past to stop him, then we're going to indirectly stop him by having you stop him for us in your future."

"Just how am I going to do that?" Ash asked as the tremors shaking the great hall started to slowly increase with intensity.

This time Arceus turned to him and energy flowed around Ash and Pikachu. "The lake guardians will take you just past the event horizon of our reality. Being there for a short time will ensure you'll remember everything while our universe gets reset. What I'm doing to you now will make sure you'll come back even if you get launched into another reality. ("Wait there are other realities?" "Pika?") I'm also making sure you'll be able to restore memories so that…"

**BOOM BOOM BOOM**

The hall was shaking very violently now. "I don't have time to do a complete job on this," Arceus stated as he stopped pooling energy around Ash and turned back to add to the energy that Dialga and Palkia had been continuously working on. "You'll be able to restore memories of your former allies but not to the extent I had been hoping to grant you, and its effectiveness may vary. While the lake guardians transport you, the three of us here will continue on the preparing the time distortion and the three guardians will return to help us after they drop you off. We'll activate it at the last possible second we can safely pull it off. Ideally when we set it off, you'll be pulled back into our reality and experience waking up the day you became a Pokémon trainer. The only difference being that it will be a few years later than what you remember. You and some of the humans you know will be a few years older and you'll still have all your memories, and probably a few new ones. From there you should relive your adventures while making appropriate changes to ensure that you stop Cyrus from ever learning the secrets of how to manipulate reality."

**BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM**

Arceus grunted. "With how much we're rushing to get this done there's going to be a few distortions that will change some things. Regardless, operate under the assumption that every major event you remember related to legendries and evil team is going to happen again, until you have proof otherwise."

**BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM**

"You all need to leave now. Best of Luck. If you happen to wake up a girl, you have some other weird condition, or I try to kill you because I don't remember anything I apologize."

Before Ash and Pikachu could voice their shock at such possibilities, the lake guardians had transported them to a void reminiscent of what Alamos town had briefly seen. The Lake Guardians brought him and Pikachu to what looked like a black translucent barrier. The trio of guardians' eyes glowed and a section of the barrier glowed as they all began to slip through it. Just as they had gotten though it there was a bright white flash behind him, and Ash and Pikachu were pushed apart as they were hit with a tremendous amount of force that shot them off in different directions.

* * *

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted as he shot up in bed. After a few seconds he realized where he was and that he had been dreaming. "If only it was just a dream," Ash sighed as he got out of the guest bed he had been using. He looked around the guest room he had been staying in the past few months. It had a wooden cabin feel about it that seemed modern while retaining a sense of being comfortable and cozy. Ash hadn't really changed the room all that much as he was hoping he wasn't going to be staying here for a long time. The only things he had added to the room were the clothes in the closet and the crude drawings of the Pokémon and people he had befriended back in his old reality.

With nothing better to do Ash made his way to the kitchen, where he was slightly surprised to see the head of the household going over some paper work. "Good morning," the man greeted. "I'm surprised to see you up this early."

"I had a bad dream. Thought given that its morning I'd just start the day early." Ash informed the man as he started to make some toast and a protein shake. "I know you told me teachers have to start the day early, but I didn't expect to see you up yet Tai."

The blonde man, Tai Yang gave a small laugh. "Well I do have to make two different lesson plans for today." He proceeded to slide a piece of paper over to Ash as he was sitting down to eat. Ash sighed as he saw there was more recommended reading the usual today.

Tai Yang Xiao Long was an instructor at the Signal Combat School, and had been picking up some extra work in giving Ash a crash course in some of his spare time. It turned out Ash's aura wasn't only just like Sir Arron's, Ash had a large amount of aura for his age. Which turned out to ideal for fighters who heavily incorporated the martial arts directly into their fighting styles. Much like the style Tai Yang had taught his oldest daughter Yang. That had probably factored into why Qrow and Ozpin had convinced Tai to provide lodging and lessons for some time.

Tai went along with it but wasn't too happy with the idea at first. Apparently Tai had become a bit of an overprotective father after his wife died, and didn't like the idea of a boy living under the same roof as his daughters very much. A few days in though Tai had warmed up, saying he felt he had nothing to worry. It was the same day he saw Yang trying to tease Ash in a way Ash didn't really understand. Which had been the day after Ash had asked why Tai needed to scold Yang after Tai had found her hanging out near a hot springs bath with a pair of binoculars. Ash never did get an answer and was still confused when he recalled the incident.

"I'll see you when I get back," Tai said as he got up to leave. "Make sure you actually memorized the subject matter this time, and get some light practice in. If your feeling up for it we can do a few light sparring rounds some time later."

"Looking forward to it professor," Ash replied back a little cheekily. It got a chuckle out of Tai as he went out the door. Though Tai was a caring dad and a good instructor, he didn't look anything like an academic scholar. The Tattoos on one of his arms ruined any chances of that. Ash finished up his morning meal before going out for his morning jog.

* * *

Ash was finishing up the last stretch of his run. As he was returning to the house he saw someone standing outside the front door. It was a girl with lilac eyes and long golden hair that cascaded down her back. She was wearing a tan vest and black shorts.

"Hey Yang." Ash greeted "What's up?"

"I'm timing Ruby." Yang answered and rose her right hand to show off a stop watch. "She left a few minutes ago which means she should be back about…" There was a blur immediately followed by a fast whoosh of wind. "Now," Yang said as she clicked the stop watch. Yang turned her gaze to the girl with dark hair with red tips that was currently leaning against the side of the house while catching her breath. "Good job Ruby, you set a new best time."

"Yes!" Ruby shouted as she gave a fist pump. The red hood she wore over her black dress further exaggerated her excitement as it billowed behind like a cape from a comic book. "Grrrrrh," her stomach growled and Ruby's face morphed from excitement to slight embarrassment. She blushed as she put her hands on her stomach. "He he, sounds like I could use another bowl of Pumpkin Pete's Marsh Mellow Flakes."

"Make sure to have something healthier later," Yang called as her younger sister went inside.

"Her speed is certainly impressive." Ash noted. "It take me 20 to 30 minutes to make a full lap on the course she sprints."

"She's certainly fast," Yang replied. She then crossed her arms and donned a cocky smile "But I prefer being strong and durable," Yang bragged with pride.

Ash immediately thought back to the many times he had gotten electrocuted or had taken a flamethrower to the face. "Yeah, I can certainly see the appeal of being able to brush off a lot more damage like it was nothing. Especially in some of the times we spared."

Yang giggled for a bit at that. "You know those first few matches probably would have been less painful for you if you didn't insist on the matches continuing until you got at least one hit in."

Ash just scratched the back of his head. "Well I've never been a quitter. Picking myself up after I got knocked down has gotten me pretty far before. I've always been ready to give it my all and push right on through whatever obstacles come my way."

"Despite the pain apparently," Ruby said as she stepped back out of the house. "I remember dad saying how surprised he was that there was someone more stubborn and thick headed then Yang." Said older sister gave her a light shove for the last part.

"I thought you were getting Cereal?" Ash inquired. He had expected it to take longer for ruby to finish her meal.

Ruby lifted up her hand to reveal and shake cereal box Ash hadn't noticed at first. "The box is a bit low, so I'm going to just bring it with me and finish it before school."

"Speaking of school, what's your crash course like today Mr. Lucky?" Asked Yang.

"Not that Lucky, I got a lot more stuff to read than usual," Ash replied.

"Please, you get to skip school and get a crash course from my Dad." Yang blew off Ash's troubles, as far as she knew, they were nothing to someone like her who couldn't skip school. "Once you're done your free to do whatever you want while Ruby and I are probably sitting through a boring lecture."

Ash put both his hands behind his head as began to think about it. "I guess you're right. I think I'll do some drawing after I'm done with the assigned reading." He wasn't anywhere near being as good as Tracey, but it helped to bring up some good memories. Ruby tended to enjoy his amateur art work as well.

"Oh!" Speaking of which, Ruby eyes had suddenly filled up with sparkles. "Can it be a new fairy tale creature? The ones you know are all so cool and exciting!"

Ash gave a wide grin and a thumbs up. "Sure, after all there are tons of them." Ruby had apparently loved having books read to her before bed as she was growing up. Her fondness for such stories was the reason why she immensely love the stories of his adventures when he retold them to her as fairy tales. "Well I better get started on that assigned reading." Ash made his way back to the house, but paused at the door. He turned around and called out, "I see you guys later, have fun sitting through those boring lectures." Right before tuning to go back inside he saw Ruby giggling and Yang sticking her tongue out at him.

* * *

"I think I'm starting to get the accuracy up." Ash wiped his brow. Ash had finished his reading assignment some time ago. He had lunch and spent his break drawing a picture of Ruby and Yang with Scizor, Zoroark, Blaziken, and Hitmonchan standing around them. Now Ash was standing outside, some distance from an upright log that was serving as a makeshift training dummy. He was currently holding a pair of escrima sticks.

"It's a good start for a beginner branching out," noted a voice behind a surprised Ash. Ash turned around to see a silver haired man wearing a black suit and a green scarf while leaning on a cane. "Hello Ash, I hope I not interrupting you at a bad time."

"Don't sweat it. I just got done with my last set. Though I am curious as to what brings you out here Professor Ozpin?"

"I came to return these," Ozpin said as he pulled out two blue gloves that had light blue crystal circles on the back from which yellow lines extended. He walked forward to give them to Ash.

"Thanks for returning Sir Aaron's gloves Professor" thanked Ash as he accepted the gloves. He had been lucky to have them on him when he was thrown from his reality into the world of Remnant. "You didn't have to come all the way out here just to return these."

"I just wanted to make sure you have these in your future," Ozpin said with what sounded like a cryptic tone. That along with the small smile on Ozpin's face made Ash wonder if there was a hidden meaning he wasn't picking up on. Before he could think further on it Ozpin continued speaking. "Plus even headmasters need an excuse to take a break every once in a while. It helps that Mr. Long has offered me a standing invitation to come and try the premium local coffee blend he keeps." Ozpin proceeded to pull out his signature coffee mug.

Ash laughed as he had learned that Professor Ozpin's love of coffee meant the man was more often seen with a mug of coffee then without. "Tai isn't here right now, but I don't think he'd mind if you helped yourself."

The two made their way inside the house. Ash got the coffee blend out for Ozpin so that he could begin brewing while he put the escrima sticks away. When he got back the coffee maker was all set so the two of them sat down to talk.

"So Ash, have things been going well for you here?" Ozpin inquired.

"Well enough, a bit better now that I got Sir Aaron's gloves back," Ash said as he briefly pulled the gloves out before pocketing them. "So I take it you and your friends are finished studying them?"

"Thank to my old friend, James Ironwood, we've made a prototype set of gloves. We're a long way off from making them on a massive scale, or available to the average huntsman, but still a promising step into technology that will help people enhance and control there auras. Those crystals in those gloves are truly something else."

"I'll say," Ash agreed. "I haven't been able to make an Aura Sphere since I gave them to you." Recreating that attack had been a very satisfying achievement for Ash, especially when he learned it was unprecedented for anyone in Remnant to create a projectile attack out of pure aura. So far trying to recreate the attack without using Sir Aaron's gloves had only produce wisps of blue light and frustration.

"Is that what prompted you to try a different weapon?" Asked Ozpin. "Even then, you had an odd choice for a projectile weapon. Most would use either guns or the bow and arrow."

Ash gained a small frown. "I wanted to use something that could be used against someone without aura and not cause serious harm." He shifted uncomfortably at the thought of what could go wrong. "Plus I doubt I'll be able to legally get my hands on anything really dangerous in my reality. That just leaves simple blunt weapons, like a staff. I'm more proficient in hand-to-hand, but I could use a staff to help block attacks if I need to be on the defensive." Ash gained a grin. "And now that I got Sir Aaron's gloves back, I have an effective range attack. Once I get back I just need to pick up a broom or an Iron bar and I'll be set." Ash sighed and gained a far of look. "If I ever go back," He said as his previous enthusiasm deflated. "Just how long is this going to take?"

Ozpin looked on in concern for a moment before speaking. "We've spoken about that before, remember? Space-time dilations and manipulations can be fickle things," Ozpin Explained. "The process could possible take seconds in your reality, but for every second over there you could experience a month in this reality. You simply need to trust that Arceus put the correct motions in place that will ensure you will return to where, and when, you are needed to be."

"Why can't thing regarding the fabric of reality be simple," groaned Ash.

"I know the fate of your realty is concerning, but why waste time worrying about the details that may very well be beyond mankind's comprehension."

Ash met Ozpin's gaze with a determined look. "When I could be using this time to better myself. Yeah, I remember, which is why I spend most of my time training myself."

Ozpin gave a small grin. He had always like people of action who rather do something then just sit around and mope. "Arceus did tell you that you possess great talent at leading others in battle and other danger situations did he not?" Ash nodded "Then continue to learn how to better command your own body, train your mind to better assess the situation, and become stronger. So when the times comes for you to save your world, you will be all the better suited to do so."

Ash gave a confident nod. "Sure Thing professor, and thanks for the pep-talk." Ash gained a thoughtful look before continuing. "While I'm at it, let me thank you for helping me after I crashed landed here on Remnant. I was lucky that Qrow found me so quickly, and that the two of you helped me get a place to stay."

"Not entirely luck," Replied Ozpin. "As I told you, once you know what to look for it's surprising how often something crashes here from another reality."

"Does that have anything to do with why this planet is called Remnant?"

"Who knows for sure?" Replied Ozpin with a shrug of his shoulders. "But it is the reason we have a system built into CCT communication towers that helps us identify when such an event happens. In fact shortly before you showed up we had a fellow by the name of 'Leonard Church' arrive. He had a  _colorful_  manner of speaking, and last I check he's been doing wonders to help some of the best scientist in Atlas."

"Too bad I didn't get the chance to meet him."

"I'm sure your mother would be thankful that you didn't." Ozpin stated as he got up to get the coffee pot that was now full of his favorite beverage. "The man might have been willing to lay down his life to save his friends, but his usual choice of language would cause any mother to try and cover their kid's ears."

* * *

"You sure you don't want to stick around and relax more Professor?" asked Ash as he and Ozpin were walking out from the house. "You came a long way just to leave after drinking one pot of coffee."

"As much as I appreciate having a break, I'm a very busy man. I need to make my way back to Beacon Academy and my responsibilities as its headmaster." He stopped and took a swig from the last cup of coffee in his hand. He then turned back to Ash. "Before I go, there's a few things I'd like to say."

"Like what?" asked a slightly confused Ash.

"Remember to never lose faith in who you are or what you're doing." Ozpin put his free hand on Ash's Shoulder. "You made such progress in a remarkably short amount of time, and I know your drive will cause you to continue to surpass your limits. Don't let whatever hardships you discover stop you. In those trying time remember that you were chosen for a reason. You just need to believe in yourself and your friends, and preserve."

"Sure thing. When the time comes I'll make sure to make you and everyone else proud professor."

"Be well Ash." Ozpin turned to leave and started walking away.

"Thanks have a safe trip professor," Ash called out as he waved his hand.

"You too," Ozpin said just as Ash was turning back towards the house.

"Wha-AAAHHHH!" Ash yelled as he was suddenly pulled into a vortex that appeared from nowhere and just as quickly disappeared after Ash had been sucked in.

Rather than being surprised, Ozpin just took another swig of his coffee. He was entirely nonchalant as a man with red cape and black hair that was starting to fade to gray suddenly ran into the area with a huge blade.

"What happened?" The man sound like he was worried something terrible had transpired.

"You can relax Qrow," Ozpin called out. "It was merely time for Mr. Ketchum to return to his world."

"Really, well that figures." Qrow muttered as he collapsed his weapon and holstered it on his back. "I wanted to talk to him. I came across some Intel that described a scorpion like creature that didn't look like a grim. I wanted to ask him if the description sounded familiar, but I guess it's too late."

Qrow proceeded to pull out a flask and drink some of its contents. "You think we might need to worry a bit more about his world?"

"Perhaps." Noted Ozpin. "Let us hope ' _she'_  doesn't find anything that we'll have to worry about, or end up causing even more trouble for Mr. Ketchum."

"Yeah, he's got a lot on his plate already." Qrow noted in concern. "You really think he'll be able to save his entire reality. The kid has guts, but it's a tall order."

"Do you remember what I told you about victory?"

"Sure, you told me that it doesn't lie in strength." Qrow began.

"But a smaller, more honest Soul." Ozpin finished and began smiling. "A young honest soul like Mr. Ketchum will always strive to do what he believes is right, and will never stop fighting for what he believes in. He will continue to fight, until he prevails."

Qrow gained a small smile. "I guess your right Oz. Still it's a shame we probably won't see him again."

"Oh? I wouldn't be too sure of that." Ozpin replied cryptically. "In fact I know he will be seeing me in his future."

"Really? When?" Qrow asked curiously.

"The very first time Ash and I met."

Qrow didn't even bother trying to hide his confusion. "What do you mean?"

Ozpin took another swig of coffee before replying in a more serious tone. "Like I told Ash earlier, space-time dilations can be fickle things. Especially when they end up connecting two different worlds together."

* * *

**I've been a huge fan of RWBY since the day its first trailer dropped. After I read Crossoverpairinglover's re-imagining of the Pokémon anime I couldn't help but feel that it would mesh well with the lore and tone of RWBY. I even saw other reviewers compare a certain minority group in the Reset Bloodlines universe to the Faunus.**

**Just to give you an idea of how serious I'm committed to trying to do this story right, I went back and started re-watching the main Pokémon anime from episode 1 and started binge watching while taking notes of anything I might want to use later on. Speaking of which, I know it's popular to ship Ash's Bulbasaur with May's Venusuaur. Still I'm surprised I haven't come across any stories that ship Ash's Bulbasaur with Florinda's Gloom ("Make Room For Gloom" episode 68 in the English release) given how the only two Pokémon who had previously blushed at each other more than those two were Ash's Butterfree and Pinky, who actually flew off to have babies together.**

**While we're on the subject of shipping, I feel like I need to point out a few things.**

**1\. In most of the fanfiction I've read the best shipping is done when the authors let character interactions naturally develop (even when they have ideas of who they want to ship) rather than forcing a ship from the start. I'll be doing the same though I do have a few ideas of what pairings I want to do.**

**2\. Given that this was inspired by "Pokémon Reset Bloodlines" this will likely end up having multiple pairings. I liked Crossoverpairinglover's poetic idea of the numbers of pairings being based on a specific number. Right now I'm thinking to the main harem size be 6 based on the 6 Pokémon party limit. If anyone wants to change my mind make arguments with similar logic. Such as, "You should expand it to 8 as a trainer aims to get 8 badges."**

**3\. No pairings between humans and Pokémon. While I honestly believe it was Latias that kissed Ash at the end of the Pokémon Heroes movie, I'm not doing such pairings because if it's possible for one species of Pokémon to be paired with a human, it becomes possible for every species of Pokémon.**

**4\. Whatever pairings I do end up going with will be based on Ash having a real connection to the girl.**

**That's all for now and I hope you enjoy reading. Let me know what you liked, and what you think I might want to improve or avoid in the future.**


	2. First Encounters Can Come With Surprises

Ash suddenly opened his eyes and took a gasp of breath. The first thing that came to his mind was he was on a soft coach looking up at a ceiling of some sort instead of walking back to the Xiao Long house hold. "Guess Arceus didn't have time to work in a heads up for the return trip," Ash groaned.

He sat up to get a look around and see where he had ended up. A quick look around revealed a second coach, a magenta carpet, and fully stacked bookshelves. All of which were a familiar part of the room that professor Oak had used as a both a living room and a lobby.

"If everything went well I should be waking up the day I started my journey." A quick look at a clock revealed that rather than in the morning it was late day, possibly with sunset not too far off. Which left Ash feeling even more curious about why he had been lying down on Professor Oak's coach. Trying to access his new memories resulted in a small headache as his mind was trying make sense of the information from two different timelines.

It was more disorientating than painful though. So Ash being Ash, kept on trying to access his memories until he made some success. "As far as I can recall everything about my mom, Gary, and Professor Oak is basically still the same. We all still live in Pallet town." Ash sometimes voiced his thoughts out load, now that habit was helping him straighten things out while his mind was still a mess. "And my dad..." he couldn't recall anything about who is father was before or after the reset. Ash ponder it for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders. "It's not like he was ever around before anyways." He had more important things to worry about right now.

"Like just what was I doing here," Ash wondered. He could recall the general info about his life but he had no idea what the date was or what he had done today. He put his hand to his chin to think. Only to pause as he felt facial hair. "Right I should be older now." He turned to the bulky old fashion TV Oak kept in the room. Ash forgot what it was called, "Cath-O-something or other". He just knew that professor Oak would rather put money into his research than replacing a TV that still functioned, and that when said TV was off it had a very reflective screen. Qrow had told him he might have some facial hair when he got back. He seemed to have a 5-O'clock shadow that he would probably be shaving sometime later.

"I look pretty much the same, just probably a few years older. Even the clothes look the same as what I wore while challenging the Kanto gyms, just larger in size." He gave himself a pat down just to make sure everything was fine. Everything was, but while doing so he noticed there was something in the pocket of his jeans. He reached in and pulled out Sir Aaron's gloves. "Awesome," Ash said with a huge grin. Then it dawned on him that because he was wearing different clothes, Sir Araon's gloves should have been left behind. "So how," Ash started before he remembered what Ozpin had told him "You just wanted to make sure I had these, huh Professor Ozpin." Ash said with a small smile. "Not sure how you did it, but thank you."

The door to the room opened. "I see you're up Ash," stated Professor Oak as he walked into the room looking pretty much like how Ash remembered him. It seemed that Ash's confusion of being back showed on his face, because the next thing the professor said was "If you're wondering why it's later in the day, it's because you nodded off after coming in for a quick break and a sandwich. With how much you helped around here today I thought you could use a bit of rest."

'Now that he mentions it I do feel a bit sweaty,' thought Ash. It also made sense of why he was here. Given how he had been physically fit enough to lift some heavier than average Pokémon with easy, even before learning about his aura, he was probably a good choice for someone to call for heavy lifting or manual labor. He quickly stored those thought away for later and returned to the conversation.

"I had a weird dream," Ash said while technically telling the truth given how he woke up that morning in Remnant before waking up back in his own world. "I just got up to check the clock and to see if I had anything on my face," Ash said while pointing to the reflective TV screen. Given how often he scarfed down food the professor would think he was talking about anything left from the mentioned sandwich being on his face rather than seeing if his face looked similar to how he remembered it.

"Well its best you start heading home and get cleaned up anyways. You'll want plenty of time to get prepared for your journey tomorrow," professor Oak said while casually revealing to Ash it was the day before his journey started.

'The day before, that doesn't give me much time.' Ash thought as he started making his way out of the room. He had thought a lot about how he might get Pikachu back, especially during his early days in remnant where not having his partner by his side had been the toughest. He figured that if Pikachu's temperament was just as bad as it was before the two of them met, then professor Oak would be more than happy to let Ash bring Pikachu on his journey if the professor saw him and Pikachu get along. After all, he had previously let May keep the Squirtle that had taken a liking to her. Not to mention the Professor would probably appreciate not having to look after a Pokémon that would often try to shock whatever human approached it.

Said professor started speaking up as he walked with Ash to the front door. "Once again thank you for the help. Sorry to ask you out here when you should be getting ready for tomorrow. Unfortunately I really needed the help, with my staff out doing field work that's taking longer than expected. I was hoping to get someone else before bothering you, but everyone else I managed to call said they were busy." Oaks explanation made Ash wonder where Gary was. Maybe it takes all day to find someone who would drive you and a bunch of cheerleaders around everywhere?

"Really it was no problem Professor," Ash replied modestly. They were near the front door when Ash stopped and starred at two trays of poke balls laying on the ground. More specifically, a particular poke ball on one of the trays that had a Z-shaped lightning bolt on it.

"Oh right, I was taking some of the Pokémon to the poke ball storage room when my package got delivered." Professor Oak casually walked over to pick up the two trays. As he started reaching for one of the trays, he was surprised to see Ash franticly pick it up.

"I'll help carry this for you before I leave," Ash stated a bit franticly. If professor Oak was planning on putting Pikachu's poke ball in the storage hall, it meant there was little chance the Professor was planning on giving Pikachu to him tomorrow. Ash need to think of a solution, fast!

"Thank you, but make sure you hurry on home, it might be raining in a bit." Professor Oak grabbed the remaining tray. "And the last thing I want is to have your mom upset with me for sending you home in the rain. She does own the only restaurant in town, and it isn't wise to upset people who make your favorite food" The professor stood up as he shared his personal wisdom.

The two of them made their way to the poke ball storage room, all the while Ash was trying to think of how to keep the lightning stickered ball on the tray he was holding. His best idea so far was to ' _accidentally'_ let Pikachu out then try and proceed with his original plan.

They had reached the entrance to the storage hall and the Professor swiped a keycard to unlock and open the door. 'Here goes' Ash thought as he reached for the lightning stickered poke ball while the professor walked inside the room.

**CRASH!**

Only to jump at a sudden loud noise. Said jump launched the poke balls on his tray into the air. They then scattered as they rolled on the floor.

"What was that noise?" asked an alarmed professor Oak as he exited the storage hall.

"I'm not sure. Sounded like it came from the front." Ash turned towards said direction of the building. Only for his eyes to widen at what he saw. He grabbed professor Oak and pulled him out of the way as a book shelf landed in front of the doorway where the professor had been standing.

"What in the world?" professor Oak said in a stupor as he turned his gaze towards the growling creature responsible. The bookshelf had fallen over from the beast responsible bumping into it as it aggressively made its way through the house. The beast stood up to let out an intimidating growl. The creatures dark black body, burning eyes, and bone white canines, claws, spikes, and bone plate on it skull where clear to see in their terrifying glory.

Ash quickly grabbed Pikachu's poke ball and the Professor's hand. "Come on!" they got just enough distance away as the creature pounced and buried its claws into the floor. They got some more distance as the creature had its claws stuck in the floor for a few seconds before slashing them out, tearing up the floor even more.

"Come on out," Ash yelled as threw the poke ball while he and professor Oak entered the main lab. In a flash of light Pikachu materialized on the lab floor. "Pikachu!" Ash's longtime companion cried out enthusiastically, glad to be out of the poke ball. It then tilted its head and gave a questioning "Pi?" as it saw Ash and Professor Oak bracing a steel table up against the doorway into the lab and something immediately started banging against the other side. The process leaving noticeable dents in the table.

"It's good to see you, just wish we could meet under better circumstances." Ash said with a nervous smile. Pikachu could only stare incredulously at the fact that they were starting off in such a situation. Pikachu could have sworn it took them at least an hour after meeting to be in mortal danger the first time!

"Just what kind of Pokémon is that?" Oak questioned, his scientific curiosity poking through.

"It' no Pokémon, it's a creature of Grimm. Judging from what I've read it's a Beowulf." While he was explain what he knew, he started pulling out Sir Aaron's gloves. In his haste he failed to notice a shiny white plastic object slip out of the right glove and onto the floor. He kept his shoulder braced against the table as he put Sir Aaron's gloves on.

"Ash, how do you…" Oak was interpreted as suddenly a claw pierced through the table between them. Both humans let out a gasp of surprise at the sight. With some difficulty the Beowulf cut downward as it pulled the claw out. It didn't cut the table in half, but it allowed the table to easily buckle inward when the Beowulf followed up the claw strike by ramming into the table again. The end result, Ash and professor Oak weren't able to effectively push the table up against the entrance as it folded inward. The twisted remains of the table flew into the lab. Both humans got knocked away to the side and Pikachu had to doge out of the way of what was left of the flying steel table.

Pikachu landed next to Ash and gasped as it saw the nightmarish creature. Pikachu immediately sent out an electric attacked that shocked the Beowulf. The grim gave a pained whine before it leapt at the time traveling duo. Ash grabbed Pikachu and dodged out of the way. The Beowulf crashed head first into the wall, dazing it for a few seconds.

"Your current electric attacks doesn't seem strong enough to down it in one go." Ash explained to Pikachu. "Keep moving around it and give it quick jolts. Focus on avoiding its attacks and try to keep it distracted while I try something." Pikachu gave a quick nod and jumped out of Ash's arms. A quick electric attack to the Beowulf's face as it turned was all it took to get the Grimm to mindlessly chase after Pikachu.

"Ash do whatever it is you got planned, I'll try to get to the starter Pokémon's' poke balls and…" Oak stopped explaining his plan and turned to gaze at Ash gave off a soft blue glow. Ash had his fist up against each other in front of his chest. His eyes were closed with a look of deep concentration on his face.

'Good thing professor Ozpin made sure I would know how to unlock my own aura," Ash thought before he began a traditional passage that was believed to help focus internal energies to unlock aura.

"For it is through self-sacrifice that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become paragons of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I unleash my soul, so that I may have the strength to protect my kin and fellow man."

At the crescendo of the chant both Pikachu and the Beowulf stopped mid-chase to turn and look at Ash. Pikachu to stare in surprise, and the Grimm was motivated by a primordial instinct to focus on the target that was glowing with aura. It gave another growl before charging at Ash.

Ash quickly formed an aura sphere and fired it at the Grimm. The sphere hit the beast right on its snout and knocked it back. It left the dark creature dazed for a moment which was all Ash needed. Ash closed the distance between himself and the Grimm while lowering his stance and central balance. Ash fired a right punch into the Beowulf's face and weaved to the left. The Grimm's howl of pain was cut short, as Ash's left fist crashed into its head as Ash weaved to the right. Ash continued to rain blows into the Beowulf while the mindless beast was unable to stop it or evade.

Ash was performing the "Dempsey Roll", the all-out boxing maneuver the Xiao Longs' had incorporated into their close quarter's combat style. While bobbing and weaving in a figure eight, each punch set up the next to carry the force of the user's full body weight. All the while making it increasingly difficult for the user's opponent to accurately read the user's movement. Its biggest weakness was that its predictable movement made it easy to anticipate and avoid. A dazed and mindless opponent like the Beowulf however, made it easy to use the move with practically no risk.

**"CRACK"**

Ash finally stopped when the Beowulf's head snapped into an unnatural angle. It fell to the ground, and made now signs of moving. Ash grinned, then he noticed how heavy his breathing was and that he felt dizzy. Apparently the stress of going all out in a fight after just unlocking your aura was very taxing. Ash stood unsteadily for a second before he tilted to the side and started to fall over. He thought he was going to hit the ground, only to be pleasantly surprised when professor Oak caught him. "Professor?"

"You can take it easy now, you won." Concern was all over Professor Oak's face. "Pika Pi" Ash looked down to see that Pikachu was also pushing against his leg in an effort to try and help prop him up.

"Thanks guys." Ash said in between deep breaths. "But if what I read is true, Grimm start to rapidly decomposing after they die. If you want to study it professor, you need to do so quick."

The Professor looked conflicted, "Shouldn't you be worried about yourself more?"

"You need to collect proof that it existed, before it disappears, especially if there's a chance that there might be more of them." Ash wasn't the smartest guy around, but he knew that trying to convince people that there might be dangerous monsters from another world wouldn't go over very well. That's why it was important that Professor Oak document proof that the Beowulf existed. That way there's was evidence that there was a strange, aggressive creature that leaves little evidence of its existence shortly after it dies.

Professor Oak looked like he wanted to protest, but he gave in and gently lowered Ash so that his back was on the floor. "Just stay there and rest. Make sure to yell if you start feeling worse." The professor then turned to Pikachu, still somewhat surprised to see it looking at a human with worry rather than trying to shock the human in question. "Can I count on you to look after him?" Pikachu gave a determined nod and put a paw protectively on Ash's shoulder. "I guess the old Orre saying is true. Battling together really does help to open a Pokémon's heart up to a trainer." He gave a small content smile before getting up to get to work.

Once Professor Oak walked out of the room, Ash turned to have his first good, long look at his oldest partner. "It's been too long buddy" ash whispered as he reached over to hug Pikachu. His eyes started to tear up out of happiness as Pikachu rubbed his cheeks against his own. The short time after Ash had arrived on Remnant was the emotionally hardest time he had ever had. Not only was he on a planet teeming with dangerous predators, and his own world might have been destroyed completely, but the weeks that followed felt extremely lonely as he and Pikachu had never been separated for long periods of time before. Ash honestly didn't know how to express how great it was to see Pikachu again.

While Ash was hugging Pikachu he noticed a paper that was lying face down on the ground nearby him. Ash, who was often curious, immediately picked up the paper and read it. A few seconds of skimming the contents revealed that it was a letter.

"I see you found that improper piece of mail." Professor Oak said as he came back into the room with medical gloves on and a box full of equipment Ash couldn't identify.

"Sorry professor, it was lying face down on the floor. If I knew it was your mail I wouldn't have picked it up." Ash replied sheepishly before handing the letter to the professor. "I only took a glance at it, but was someone trying to bribe you?"

Professor Oak looked down at the letter with a frown. "Someone with connections to the board that helps decides scientific funding has two fraternal twins that will be coming of age soon. While they've met all the qualifications they won't be able to pick up their starter from me until their shared birthday. By then, you and Gary would have each left with your starter, but I would have yet to receiver new starters here at the lab. This would leave only one starter that could only go to one of his two children. Rather than have his children either split up or wait to choose their starters, he wanted me to convince either you or Gary to wait until the next batch of starters arrived to start your journey. In return he would convince the necessary people to give me a larger research grant." Professor Oak gave a surprising loud scoff. "It's insulting to have my scientific integrity thought of so weak. I would have preferred to throw the letter in the trash, but it'll create more trouble if I don't politely decline with a proper reply."

"You know professor, I wouldn't mind having Pikachu here as my starter." Pikachu gave an enthusiastic "Pika, Pikachu" to support the idea.

Professor Oak looked taken aback, both by Ash volunteering and Pikachu's enthusiasm. "The two of you have clearly bonded and I appreciate the gesture Ash, but you worked very hard to earn the right to begin your journey here and receive one of the starter Pokémon I give out. Besides I'd be more than happy to let Pikachu go with you and whatever starter you select."

Ash put his hand to his chin in a thought full pose to hide the grin he now had. It was certain that Pikachu would be accompanying him now, but now he had a problem. It would be great to also begin his journey with a Bulbasuar, Charmander, or Squirtle. 'But none of them would likely be my Bulbasuar, Charizard, or Squirtle.' While it wasn't guaranteed that events would play out exactly like they did before, he still wanted to find all the Pokémon he had befriended before. If he left with one of the three starter Pokémon that were here in Oak's lab right now, that Pokémon would likely be surpassed by one of the Kanto starters he had caught in the original timeline.

"As great as it would be to start my journey with two new friends, I'm worried about how that Beowulf just charged right in here and attacked us." Ash turned his head to the corpse of the grim. Black mist was already starting to leak into the air. "I'd rather you have all the funds you might need. Both to know if there are more of them, and if so, what needs to be done about them." Ash turned back to Professor Oak. "So if it's OK with you professor, how about I take a rain check on that starter Pokémon and start my journey here with Pikachu. Then if I really do need one of the three starter sometime later, I can pick one up when there aren't any new trainers who need one."

"That's," Professor Oak seem to pause as he took in how serious Ash was sounding. "Very mature of you Ash." It was a genuine surprise to see the cheerful energetic young man put so much thought into something selfless. "Very well, but make sure you drop by when you come back to Pallet Town. I won't forget that I owe you a Pokémon."

From there Ash helped the Professor move a few things around (after assuring the Professor he was okay to do so) before Professor Oak had him look at some descriptions of books about fairy tales and legends he had pulled up on his computer. Oak asked him if they were the stories he had read that contained information about the Beowulf. Ash was worried he have to lie to Professor Oak, only to become confused and concerned when he saw that some of the book descriptions matched some of the books he had read while he was on Remnant. Once he confirmed which books he might have read, the professor reminded Ash he should start heading home. Luckily he didn't mind Ash taking Pikachu home with him. In fact he insisted on it. Apparently the incident with the Beowulf had Professor Oak worried as he told Ash "It could be dangerous to go alone! Take this Pokémon with you."

* * *

"So that's how time passed for me and how I knew about that creature." Ash spoke to Pikachu in a low voice. It was unlikely anyone was around to listen in, but decided it best to be somewhat cautious.

Ash and Pikachu had been catching up. Ash knew it would have been better to wait until they were home and alone in his room, but he couldn't help it. It had been too long and he had really missed his best friend. So as Ash walked home with Pikachu on his shoulder, he told Pikachu about his time on Remnant. Before long they were approaching the Ketchum household.

"Good thing it's still where I remember it being." Ash said as they approached his home. "And it looks like Mr. Mimes already here." The psychic type that only listened to his mother was sweeping the front porch as Ash approached. Ash hadn't been expecting to see Mr. Mime so soon, but after fighting a Beowulf before officially becoming a trainer, Mr. Mime was a welcome surprise that he took in stride. "Hey Mr. Mime," Ash called out with an enthusiastic wave.

Mr. Mime smiled and waved back. "Mr. Mime. Mime?" Mr. Mime gave a curious second look once it caught sight of Pikachu.

"Oh yeah," Ash had to stop and remember that this was technically the first time Mr. Mime was meeting Pikachu. "Let me introduce you to Pikachu." "Pikachu" Pikachu greeted warmly while sticking out a paw. Mr. Mime used two fingers to grab the offered paw and greet Pikachu with a handshake and a smile. "Mime!"

"Ash, is that you sweetie?" Ash heard his mother call from inside the house.

"Yeah mom, I'm back," Ash called out as he opened the door.

"Dinner will be ready soon. Why don't you go upstairs and work on getting ready for tomorrow. I'll call you when it's time to eat."

Ash gave a quick "OK" before going up to his room. When he got there he found his room in a bit of a mess with various things scattered about.

"Pika?" Pikachu asked with a questioning glance.

"I probably was second guessing what I should bring along with. During the original night before I met you, I was up late because I kept second guessing about which starter to pick. Which is what led to me over sleeping the next morning. Luckily that lead to everything working out the way it did, huh buddy."

"Cha" Pikachu cried out in agreement.

"Because I ended up getting all three starters later anyways," Ash said with a teasing grin. He was reward with a light slap from Pikachu's tail, and let out a few laughs. "And of course the best thing was getting to start my journey with you Pikachu." Pikachu gave Ash a smug look that said 'You know it and don't forget it.'

Ash gave a few more chuckles as he got started to both clean up and pack up. "Sorry about the joke, when I was at the Xiao Long House I learned to use humor to deal with things. Unfortunately their teasing brand of humor might have rubbed off on me."

Ash fold his arms and gained a seriously look. "I might be using that humor a lot more in the future. We have a lot of things we'll need to deal with down the road, especially Cyrus. I mean, you remember what his goal basically is right?"

Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and onto a nearby desk near to a rubber ball that looked like a globe (Ash vaguely remember how his mom had noticed he was better at learning outside a traditional classroom setting early on, and got it to help him with geography). Pikachu spiked up the fur on his head to look like the hairstyle of the leader of team Galactic. Pikachu then glared at a globe on top of the desk with board loathing. Pikachu casually picked up the Globe and casually dropped it into the nearby waste bin.

"Yeah that's pretty much it in a nutshell," Ash said with a slight sweat drop. "Though I have to say it's moments like this that remind me how great you are at impressions and charades. You really should have gotten that lead role in that one movie instead of Psyduck." Ash gave a few claps to which Pikachu responded by giving a stage bow.

* * *

 

[Somewhere by a river on Route 1]

"Psy-duck" " _Ah-Choo_ " A golden duck Pokémon sneezed.

"Psyduck! I didn't call you out just so you could sneeze on me!" Yelled an irritated individual. Said individual was a teenage girl that looked to be the same age as Ash, and had her orange hair done up in a single ponytail. Her body was gently tanned and well developed like a professional swimmer.

She was currently checking to make sure none of Psyduck's snot got on her denim shorts or her pale yellow blouse that covered her bust without hiding much of its depth or size. Her clothes already looked old and worn due to their visible age, that last thing she needed was snot stains on them.

"Geez, why is it you often cause me to get a headache as well," the girl said as she returned her focus to the duck that was the cause of her irritation. "Anyway I brought you out here so that you can help me set up camp and carry these fish I caught." She gestured to the net filled with non-Pokémon fish on top of the rock near the river's edge.

"Psy"  _"Really? I was expecting you to start with gloating about whatever new Pokémon you've caught while you were fishing Misty."_ Psyduck asked.

"I don't gloat!" the now named Misty yelled indignity. "I, uh, just like introducing new team members," she said in tone that did little to convince Psyduck of her statement. She quickly regained her composure (aka anger). "Besides I got here later than I expected. So I just made sure to get food before it started getting dark out. Now quit stalling and grab the fish while I go back to packing up my fishing gear."

"Psy"  _"Yeah we wouldn't want you to lose that weird lure you made that looks like yourself,"_  muttered Psyduck sarcastically.

"What was that?" Misty asked angrily.

"Psy!"  _"Nothing!"_  Psyduck responded quickly before waddling over to the net full of fish. "Psy!" Only to need to quickly jump back and shout as large sharp gray scythe came down with enough force to send chunks of rock flying. Psyduck looked up to see an intimidating Pokémon that was mostly brown, and had two very sharp scythes instead of hands.

"Kabutops." " _I bet you'll taste good_ " said the intimidating Kabutops. It started to lunge at Psyduck with its other scythe.

"Halt!" Misty yelled with a hand out stretched and a look of intense concentration on her face as she stared at the Kabutops. Remarkably enough the Kabutops froze in its place, its eye's gained a glassy unfocused look. Misty got an empty poke ball ready without taking her eyes of the wild Pokémon. "I'm going to capture you now. You will not resist this."

The Kabutops nodded its head with the same far-off, unfocused look on its face. Misty promptly threw her poke ball. In a flash of light the Kabutos disappeared inside the poke ball. Said ball fell to the ground an immediately clicked shut without shaking once.

"Phew," misty exhaled a sigh of relief. She walked over to pick up her latest capture. "That was a little too close for comfort. You okay Psyduck?"

"Psy-y-y-y-y-y!" " _No! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"_ Psyduck cried out in dismay as it clutched its head even harder than usual. " _One of the rocks that, whatever it was, kicked up hit me and now my head hurts!"_

"Just hold on Psyduck." Misty said in concern as she quickly went over and put her hands gently over top of where Psyduck's own webbed hands where clutching its head. Within seconds the golden duck started to visibly relax. "There, starting to feel better?" Misty asked gently.

"Psy"  _"Yes"_  Psyduck said with relief.  _"Though I can't help but wonder if I should be concerned by the fact that you're treating my latest headache with the same power you just used to capture that wild Pokémon."_

"You know how much I dislike using it like that," Misty respond sadly while her eyes dropped to the ground. "I only ever tried to do so once when I was younger and didn't know any better. The Pokémon I caught hated me so much for it, I ended up releasing it back into the wild out of guilt."

The story slightly surprised Psyduck, who had expected a somewhat angry retort instead of sad reminiscing. "Psy" Psyduck let out a small sigh at the mood that had developed.  _"Okay, so given how much you dislike capturing Pokémon that way, how come you just didn't order it to go away. I get that it was dangerous, but so are a lot of other Pokémon that live in the wild."_

"Because it matched the description I've read of one of those fossil Pokémon. You know the ones that some scientist too smart for their common sense decided to bring back to life! Only for at least one of them to escape into the Wild." Misty huffed and rolled her eyes at how casually some scientist trampled over the laws of nature. Especially with how well known Jurassic Park was! "With what that Pokémon said and what I read, it was a dangerous water-rock type predator. If it could find a way to thrive in the wild, it could seriously damage the natural balance here and kill a lot of unsuspecting people and Pokémon."

"Psy" " _Sounds like the new recruit could be a great team player."_ Psyduck commented sarcastically.  _"You may feel guilty about capturing it, but look at the bright side you have a rare prehistoric Pokémon."_

"Yeah, one that some theorize might be Scyther's prehistoric ancestor." Misty said flatly. At best it was depressing to think about it possible connection to a bug Pokémon. At worst it would send a shiver down her spine given her bug-type phobia. "Still while it will be difficult to deal with, I'm not going to feel guilty over not letting a dangerous prehistoric predator go on a rampage."

"Kabu"  _"Mommy where are you?"_  Misty and Psyduck turned their attention back to the water where a small Pokémon with a brown shell was sticking its head above the surface. Misty couldn't see much as the darkness of the underside of the shell obscured everything except its legs and it two red eyes that seemed to be tearing up.  _"Mommy you said I wouldn't be hungry much longer, that you'd be right back with food. Mommy? Mommy? MOMMY!"_  Tears began cascading out of its eyes fast enough to possibly be confused for two weak water gun attacks.

"Psy"  _"What were you saying about not feeling guilty."_

"I take it back alright," Misty said as she face-palmed. "We caught plenty of fish, we'll offer the kid something to eat and say the mom is with us. We'll start heading towards Pewter City. If both the mother and the kid hate us by the time we get the Peter City Museum, we'll find a scientist that can take care of them." Misty reached into the net and grabbed a fish. As she made her way over to the edge of the water she couldn't help commenting about her current situation. "I bet there aren't any other trainers who have to deal with such an unbelievable situation."

* * *

 

[Ketchum Household Kitchen]

"I can't believe you had to deal with such an unbelievable situation!" shriek a concerned Delia Ketchum.

'Thanks for running your big mouth Gary.' Ash couldn't help but think. 'You just had to call my house. You just had to know as many details as possible about the incident that happened at your grandfather's lab.' Ash cold see how that habit of needing to gather as many detail as possible would serve Gary well in a future role as a researcher. Right now though Ash was frustrated with how it lead to his current situation.

His mom had called him down as the food had finished cooking, right before Gary made the call. He arrived in the kitchen just in time to see his mother hastily slam the phone down and run over to him. Now rather than digging in to eat, Ash was currently standing in place while his mother did a thorough job of looking him over. He needed to move his arms and head as his mom instructed, so she could check for the tiniest sign of injury on his body. Luckily his now activated aura would have heal any cuts and scrapes he may have gotten without noticing. Which was good, considering how much more of a fuss his mom might make if she were to find even a scratch at this point.

"Really mom, I'm fine thanks to my new friend here." Ash said while gesturing towards Pikachu. Delia having failed to find an injury, relented and turn her gaze to small yellow Pokémon that was affectionately rubbing its cheek against the ketchup bottle she had set on the table.

"Well thank goodness you had this cute little guy there to help you." Delia walk over to the table. "Thank you for keeping my little pumpkin safe (MOM!), have all the ketchup you want," she said while petting Pikachu. Pikachu cooed a happy "Cha" in response.

Delia turned to face hers son. "Good thing we already bought some basic Pokémon food for your journey ahead of time. Ash could you be a dear and go grab some from the cupboard while I finish setting the table?"

"Sure mom."

* * *

 

[One delicious meal later]

"It's certainly generous of you to wait on getting a starter from Professor Oak so that some other kids can start their journey earlier, but are you sure you'll be fine?" Delia asked her son with both pride at his maturity, and concern for him.

"I'll be fine, besides me and Pikachu really bonded. I can't think of starting my journey with any other Pokémon at this point." Ash said from in front of the sink as he rinsed his plate.

"Pikachu" Pikachu agreed from his spot on the counter nearby.

"Well you might not be beginning your adventure with a starter Pokémon, but you'll be starting off with a gift from your pen-pal Serena."

"Serena sent me a gift?" Ash inquired while failing to notice Pikachu do a fist pump at the news that Ash and Serena were in contact with one another. "What is it?"

"No idea, it's in a box in the living room. I only know it's a gift for you because of the note on the outside of the box indicates as such, and said for you to open it before you leave. It's in the living room. You go ahead and open it while I go upstairs and double check to make sure you packed everything you'll need." Delia said as she made her way to the balcony to go upstairs.

"I'm sure I pack enough clean underwear to change into." Ash called after her as she walked out of the room. If his mom had heard him, she chose to make no indication that she had and continued up the stairs. Once she was on the second floor Ash turned back to Pikachu. "Seems Serena and me managed to stay in touch this time around."

"Pika-chu" Pikachu said well giving Ash a look that both unnerved him a bit, and seemed to imply Pikachu knew something Ash didn't. (AN: The "I know who's in love", busy body/shipper look). Ash chose to ignore the look and go open the package.

There were a few items inside the box, but the first thing to stick out to Ash was a red and white hat with a green stylized "L" that looked exactly like the hat he was currently wearing. "Is that what I think it is? How'd she manage to get a hold of one of these?" While Ash had told people that he had to have sent over a million postcards in to win his official Pokémon League Expo hat, few people realized that it wasn't that much of an exaggeration. Pikachu came over to inspect the contents of the package as well, and pointed out a piece a paper to Ash. Ash picked it up to find that it was a letter from Serena.

Ash quickly skimmed the letter until he reached a point that mentioned the hat and read the contents aloud. "I know you've mentioned how much you like your hat, however given how it's something of a collector's item, it would be a shame if something happened to it while you were on your Journey. So I made a replica that you could take on your journey instead. I did my best so that it would look close enough to the real thing, I hope you like it."

Ash gently put the note down to read in full later and picked up the custom hat Serena had made for him. "Forget close, this looks and feels exactly like my official hat. If someone was to sell this I bet only an expert would be able to tell it's not the official hat." Ash marveled at Serena's talent and craftsmanship. After a few seconds he reached up and took off the official hat to reveal the messy, untamable hair that was part of the reason he wore hats in the first place. He then put on the custom hat Serena had made for him. "Comfortable fit two. Thanks for the gift Serena."

* * *

 

[Professor Oak's Lab]

Professor Oak was a man with a great amount of scientific curiosity. That said as he looked over the devise in his hands, he couldn't help but feel that something was off. He had found it in the loosely organized piles Gary had briefly put together both as an apology for showing up unannounced at his lab so late, and to have a reason to stick around and inquire about what he had walked in on. The lab was still a mess and the Beowulf hadn't completely dissolved yet when Gary had showed up.

Following Ash's advice the Professor spent every moment he could focusing on analyzing and documenting the Beowulf's body. It was a good thing to, because the small token efforts he made to preserve the body didn't do anything to slow down its decay. Though said fact was written into the notes of the documentation process.

The first thing the Professor did once the body had completely evaporated was to assess the state of his lab. As Requested Gary had left everything that the Beowulf had damaged alone so that forensic techniques could be later used to possibly gain more information about the aggressive creature. Not to mention the damage the Beowulf had caused was now the only direct source of information that the creature had even existed, now that its body was completely gone. While the professor's analysis and documentation of the creature had been thorough, it was still technically an indirect source of information and would benefit from being supported by a direct source of information.

The professor had found something in the organized piles of things that had been scattered around during the incident, but hadn't incurred any damage. It was an object the professor had never seen in his lab before. A small device of some sorts that at first glance was white rectangular plastic and had a golden diamond on one side. As Oak lifted it out of the pile it fold out from the center to display a translucent screen that then proceeded to display a computer like screen image. On the screen was the text "Enter Name" followed by an input box. Guessing that it used a touch screen interface, the professor inputted "Samuel Oak" out of curiosity.

He had expected the result to be something along the lines of "User Not Found." Instead his curiosity turned into suspicion when not only did the device recognize his name as a valid input, it requested a fingerprint to verify. This implied, at the very least, that an unknown party he wasn't aware of had gotten data on his fingerprints without him knowing.

This was why the Great Professor Oak was currently staring at a devise no bigger than a Pokedex with a very understandable level of concern. After contemplating the situation for a bit, he ultimately decided he need to try and get more information out of the device. So he put his thumb on the highlighted circle of the devise's touch screen, and was reward with the words "User Recognized"before the login screen began to fade away.

The moment that the login screen was gone a video started to play. As the video started it showed a man with white hair, sitting behind a desk, wearing a black suit and a green scarf. "Hello Professor Oak! I'm Professor Ozpin!" the man greeted in a polite tone.

Professor Oak couldn't help but think his long night working in the lab was going to get even longer.

* * *

 

[Ketchum Household, the Next Morning]

It was a bright and wonderful morning. The sun was shining, pidgies could be heard chirping, and Ash was in front of the bathroom mirror, having his first experience with the concept of shaving. Or at least what would feel like the first time to him.

"This is going to take some getting use too," Ash couldn't help but comment as he was finishing up. "I shouldn't be surprised mom got me an electric razor. Qrow did say beginners are less likely to cut themselves with these kind of razors." He was extremely fortunate that Qrow had known of his circumstances, and had told Ash what he might need to prepare for when he got back to his world in an older body. The need to shave was one of the first that had come to mind. "Hopefully he was also right about me not having to shave too often." Ash added as an afterthought. "Did I miss any spots Pikachu?" Ash asked only to not hear a response.

"Pikachu?" Ash said as he turned his head to see Pikachu worryingly looking at itself in the bathroom mirror. "You okay buddy?"

"Pika" Pikachu let out depressingly, while slightly pulling at it skin. Or rather the extra amount of skin Pikachu currently had compared to right before their timeline got reset. It didn't take Ash too long to figure out what Pikachu was depressed about.

"You weren't exactly doing much exercise or practice when we first met." Ash bluntly pointed out. "That changed after you got serious about battling though." Ash continued in a tone that actually started to sound encouraging. "As you started putting serious effort in to practicing you slimed down, and eventually you were physically fit and powerful enough to take down legendary Pokémon. Not to mention you apparently became good looking enough for Dawn's Buneary to fall in love with you at first sight." Ash gave Pikachu a teasing grin at the last part.

Pikachu sheepishly rubbed its head at the last remark. Pikachu then turned back to its reflection with a determined look on its face, and gave a determined "CHU PIKA CHU, PIKACHU!" In fact it was said with such conviction Ash heard  _"I GOT FIT ONCE, I'LL DO IT AGAIN!"_  in his head.

Ash let out a small chuckle at what his vivid imagination came up with. It could occasionally go off the rails. Like how the first time he saw the camera of Pokémon photographer he had thought someone was aiming a sniper rifle at him and his friends. After that over-reaction he made sure to never let his imagination run  _too_  wild again. While Ash had encountered Pokémon that could speak human languages, what were the odds he'd ever hear exact words coming from Pikachu?

"Ash, could you come here sweetie?" he heard his mom yell from downstairs.

"Sure mom, I'll be there in a few seconds." Ash yelled back.

[A few seconds later]

As Ash arrived at the entrance to his house, he saw his mom alongside a visitor he certainly wasn't expecting to see.

"Gary, what are you doing here?" Ash said making no effort to hide how surprised he was.

"Now Ash, is that any way to welcome a friend?" his mother lectured.

"As much as Ash needs to work on his poor manners, I need to correct your assumption." Gary immediately, and hypocritically, began in his smug know it all attitude. "As of today we're the opposite of friends, we're competing trainers striving to reach the Pokémon League." Gary said with conviction and a determined glint in his eyes. "Of course a trainer of my talent has little to worry about. I look forward to seeing if you even make it to the League tournament Ashy-boy." Gary condescendingly stated while putting his hands on his hips.

Ash had almost forgotten how irritating it was to listen to Gary during his earlier days as a trainer. It figures he'd be thoroughly reminded of that fact the first time he met Gary again. Though it looked like Gary's attitude came somewhat of a shock to his mom given the concerned look she had that was further emphasized by the hand she was holding up to her face in worry.

"Oh my," his mom said in a concerned tone. "Your sister Daisy told me you developed a bad habit of bragging to cover up your own insecurities, but I didn't expect it to be this bad."

"Please don't believe those stupid theories my sister comes up with about my behavior!" Gary replied rather quickly while looking clearly embarrassed. Ash couldn't help but smirk at getting to see his mother so easily embarrass Gary without even trying.

Still, it reminded him that as the Grandson of Professor Oak, people seemed to expect a lot from Gary. Ash wondered if Gary's excessive bragging came from him trying to make it sound like he was always exceeding the expectation people had for him.

"Anyway let's get back to the reason I came here in the first place," Gary said trying to steer the conversation back to something that wasn't embarrassing for him. "I stopped by the lab last night to ask Gramps what the earliest time I could show up was, and to try and make sure I got there before you today. The first pick of the three starters has its benefits after all." Gary said in a tone that implied ' _I'm so clever_ '. "My arrival was timely, as I got to see both the remains of that fight that broke out in the lab and a certain letter that was still sitting out." Gary gained a frown.

"Given what I walked in on, Gramps told me what had happened." Gary was looking down at the floor now. "He told me you were going to start your journey without one of the three starter Pokémon and the reasons why. I know I certainly wouldn't have volunteered to do such a thing." Gary close his eyes and looked to be in deep thought for a second. Then he smiled and looked back up at Ash. "It was real nice of you to do something like that Ash, Pallet Town has certainly been better off having someone like you growing up here."

"Wow Gary, is that genuine praise I hear?" Ash asked in teasing tone while knowing the answer. While Gary had still sounded characteristically smug, it was easy to tell he genuinely meant what he had said.

"Don't get used to it." Gary huffed. "Your athletic accomplishments for the town's sports teams might have rivaled my academic ones, but I'm going to be the one to win the League this year." Ash briefly had a flash back to him playing pitcher during the final game of Kanto's Little League Baseball, and Gary winning first place in academic competition for primary school children held at Celadon University. "The people of Pallet town will be chanting my name as I bring them the trophy and pride." Gary smugly said while pointing his thumb at himself.

"I don't know Gary, I feel pretty confident I could make it farther in the League tournament then you." Ash said in a confident knowing tone. After all he had gotten farther than Gary in both the Kanto's and Johto's Pokémon League tournaments.

Ash could almost see a tick mark appear on Gary's forehead as he seemed to become visibly annoyed at what Ash had said with such easy confidence. Gary quickly regained his composure and waved it off though. "Quit dreaming Ashy-boy, I'm the one who's going to bring home the first place trophy.

"Speaking of rewards-" Gary took off his backpack and reached into it. He brought out a black plastic carrying case that had a lightning bolt in the center, a plus sign near the right side, and a minus sign on the left. "You ought to get at least something for everything you did yesterday." Gary said while trying to sound like it was no big deal. "The contents inside this can be used to have an electric Pokémon safely charge or run numerous electric devices. I had already gotten two cases for when I inevitably catch an awesome electric type Pokémon, worthy of someone like me. I figured it would be more useful with you using it, rather than me just keeping it as a spare. Besides given the name and mascot, it's only fitting that you have one."

Ash took the case from Gary and flipped it around. On the other side were the words "Pika Power Pack" in stylized letters with a cartoony Pikachu giving a thumbs up standing in for the "i". It was drawn in a cute chibi style that had the head floating slightly above the rest of the body to make it look like the dot. "Thanks Gary" He couldn't help but think it was nice to have a genuine friendly moment with his very first rival like this.

"Oh, Daisy was right. You really do care deep down." Only for said moment to come crashing to an end as his mother gushed over it. This caused Gary to once again become embarrassed and start walking to the door. "I should get going. Smell you later."

"Smell you later?" Ash could understand his mother's confusion at Gary's unique choice of words.

Gary briefly stopped in the door way. He turned back with a confident smirk on his face. "It's what I came up for in case a reporter ask me if I have a catchphrase. It works because I'm so great, other trainers stink in comparison." Of course Gary had an arrogant reason for using that catchphrase.

"Well it's better than nothing," Ash let out a laugh at his mother's remark and the look on Gary's face. What made it even funnier was how his mom's forced smiled made it clear she was actually trying to be nice. "Still, why don't you keep working on it? You're a smart boy. I'm sure you can come up with something better that you can look back on years from now and be proud of." His mom continued in an encouraging voice that continued to make Ash laugh.

Gary let out a sigh, "Will do Ms. Ketchum. Will do." Gary let out in a depressed tone and walked outside, presumably towards his grandfather's lab.

* * *

 

[Outside the front door of Professor Oak's Lab a short while later]

"Here's your Pokedex and some poke balls." Professor Oak told Ash as he handed him the mentioned items. They were meeting outside the building because he had people inside thoroughly going over the damage the Beowulf had caused. "I gave you a few more poke balls than what's normally given out as a way of thanking you" the Professor added with a whispers.

"Thanks Professor." Ash said as he took the offered items. "Speaking of poke balls, Pikachu seems to really dislike them. Even without words he made it very clear he doesn't want to ever go back inside one." Pikachu eagerly nodded his head in agreement. "I'm just going to have Pikachu stay out of its ball."

"How Johto of you. Hmm, I'm surprised I didn't pick up on it not liking the poke ball. It would help explain the bad mood it had ever since it was caught when we found it chewing on some electrical wires." Pikachu sheepishly rubbed the back of its head as Ash gave it a curiously look. "It also might factor into why it quickly took a liking to you after you let it out. Still, with how rare it is to find Pokémon that are uncomfortable inside poke balls we just assume that it just disliked humans in general. Though that was mostly because of how often it tried to shock any human that didn't try to bribe it with Ketchup. Enough of that now. It's time to go down and see the people who came to see you off."

"Thank you everybody for coming out to wish me luck." Ash said when he reach the front gate to see a group of people from Pallet town that we're there to congratulate him on becoming an official Pokémon trainer and see him on his way. He also noticed that the group was slightly bigger this time around.

"It nothing dear. It's the least we could do with how often you've helped assist your mother with the charity efforts." Said a woman that ash remembered to be from same local community service group as his mother. "I shouldn't have even been surprised to hear that you gave up choosing a starter so that a pair twins would be able to start their Journey together." The woman said revealing how fast gossip could travel around.

"Besides we at least ought to see history in the making." An older gentlemen called out. "Professor Oak put this town on the map, but you and Gary have been our kids' source of pride as the achievements you've earned and will continue to earn remind the current generation that Pallet Town produces some mighty fine folks." The man happily noted with pride.

The sentiment was reinforced by the cheers that followed it.

"Show what Pallet is made off!"

"Make us proud!"

"This is the reason I've eagerly await the year Pallet Town's two golden boys turned 15!"

Well at least now Ash finally knew what age he was. Alongside the fact that he and Gary were already well on their way to becoming the local town heroes. He couldn't help but wondering how they would react if they knew how many times he saved the day before the timeline reset. He supposed he'll just have to settle for seeing their reaction after he came back from the next time he saved the day and it was public knowledge.

"Take care of yourself sweetie, I know you'll do great." "Mime mime! His mom and Mr. Mime told him. He was glad that she reminded him to take his backpack when he ran out the door eager to actually get to Professor oak's Lab on time. It meant that only Pikachu and Mr. Mime had been present to see his mom embarrass him the way same way she had done the first time around.

"Remember to call back home every now again, all right?" His mom said as she embraced him in one last hug before he left.

"I'll make sure to do so mom." Ash said as he returned the hug.

They let go and Ash waved goodbye as he started walking towards Route 1.

"Don't push yourself or Pikachu too hard" His mom called out as everyone else started to walk home.

"Don't worry, I won't."

"Be sure to change your…"

"Got it mom!" Ash shouted to cut off his mother. It seemed even as a teenager she'd still do that to him.

After that Ash was far enough away to be out of sight of his loving, if over protective mother, Delia looked down. A little sad to see her only child leaving home.

"It was interesting, my dear."

Delia jumped and turned around in a minor fluster to see that Professor Oak had chosen to stick around to talk to her after all the other townsfolk had left.

"That Pikachu was considered untamable. Even with the conditions in which they met each other, it's really quite remarkable how Ash has gotten it to be so tamed and friendly so quickly."

"Well, you know we Ketchum's have always been good at connecting with Pokémon" "Mime mime." Delia noted as Mr. Mime spoke out in agreement.

"True, but the real question is, was just natural talent? We both know the potential he showed when he was a child. Part of the reason I gave him the scholarship to my summer camp was to see if there was ever any signs of that potential manifesting again. Yesterday I saw a clear sign of that potential. The question now though, is it just an unconscious thing?"

"I more concerned about who sees it." Delia mused in a dark sadness and worry.

"And if whoever sees it believes in the legends that surround the fabled aura guardians."

Delia gave the Pokémon Professor a confused a look.

"The bond Ash quickly developed with Pikachu wasn't the clear sign I was talking about." Professor Oak put on hand on Delia shoulder in case he need to help keep her steady. "I think it's time I told you exactly what happened yesterday." Professor Oak said knowing that by now, Ash was probably too far away for his mother to chase after him in worry.

* * *

 

[Somewhere on Route 1]

"Okay Pikachu give it your best shock." Ash shouted while pointing at an empty tree.

"PI, KA, CHU!" Pikachu yelled as it brought forth as much electricity as it could summon and fired it at the unsuspecting tree. Only to then become disappointed at how little the damage was done.

"Sorry to say but that was just a thundershock. A rather powerful thundershock all things considered. Still it looks like just as I had to unlock my aura again, you're going to need to relearn nearly all of your moves."

"Pika!" Pikachu moaned about the unfairness of losing all his previous hard work and slammed his head against the tree in frustration. Surprisingly, the impact cracked some of the bark of the Tree.

"Hey look at the bright side, you might have just learned how to use headbutt!" Ash said while trying to sound encouraging. All it got was an annoyed look from Pikachu. "Just trying to cheer you up buddy."

"Still we should be good with just thundershock. So long as we avoid angering a certain flock of Sparrow the only Pokémon we're likely to come across are Rattatas and Pidgeis. A few thundershocks should be more than enough to deal with them, even if there attacking more frequently now.

After they had left Pallet Town, it wasn't long before they encountered wild Pokémon. This time the territorial instincts of Pokémon seemed to be stronger. As even rather docile Pokémon like Pidgey and Rattata immediately started to attack the moment Ash and Pikachu entered what seemed to be the Pokémon's' perceived turf. Luckily the Pokedex was continuously conducting scans as they walked. It gave them a general idea of where wild Pokémon were so they could fight or avoid them at their own leisure.

"Either way we'll hopefully arrive in Viridian City early enough to find Officer Jenny and tell her how we overheard three suspicious looking individuals talking about trying to steal Pokémon from the Pokémon Center. If we're lucky officer Jenny we'll take care of Team Rocket without us even meeting those three, and because we won't meet them in Viridian there's a good chance we'll never see those three again."

"Pikachu!" Pikachu exclaimed in joy at the possibility of never having to deal with Jessie, James, or a talking Meowth ever again.

"Come on let's get going." Pikachu eagerly climbed up on top of Ash's shoulder, ready to get going. Unfortunately as soon as Pikachu was back on top his usual perch on Ash's shoulder-

"AAAAHHHH!" A loud scream ran out.

"Pikachu did you hear where that came from." Ash immediately asked.

"Pi," Pikachu nodded his head. His ears gave a small twitch before he pointed to the north. Ash quickly took off to find whoever it was that was in trouble. It wasn't long before Ash found himself near the base of a waterfall. A waterfall that seemed to look familiar for some reason.

"Wait a second," Ash stopped to take a second look at the waterfall. "Pikachu do you think this looks like the area where we first met… "

"Just get away from me you stupid birds! Ah!" a feminine voice yelled from further down the river before the person it belong to quickly dove under the water.

"Misty!" "Pikachu Pi!" Ash and Pikachu exclaimed in horror.

Further down the river was Misty, with an angry flock of Spearow and Fearow circling overhead. The bird Pokémon where taking turns diving at Misty whenever she came up to the surface of the water. Misty was putting up a fight though. Every time she surfaced along with her Staryu and Starmie, they would launched attacks at the birds circling above before the three of them quickly dove back under the water to avoid the incoming beaks and talons. Apparently the tactic was having some success. While they paled in comparison to the number of still left in the sky, there were some Spearow and Fearow lying unconscious on the ground. What really surprised Ash though was when he actually saw Misty come up, summon what looked like a whirlpool attack, and launch it at the flock of Spearow and Fearow.

"I was not expecting Misty to have a water semblance." Ash said in surprise. Ash had been hoping he might meet up with Misty on his way to Viridian city, but he never imagined it would be like this. He quickly shook his head and focused on the fact that one of his friends was in trouble. He pulled out Sir Aaron's gloves and put them on. "Come on Pikachu we have to find a way to help her." He quickly started running downstream along the side of the bank, all the while trying to think of a plan of attack. The descriptions the Pokedex read out only served to fuel him with more dread.

"Spearow the Tiny Bird Pokémon. This highly aggressive and territory Pokémon are known to attack those who anger them in huge swarms. They have been referred to as the Carvannah of the sky due to the lack of flesh left behind on the bone of their prey."

"Fearow the Beak Pokémon. Fearow are capable of continuous flight for over a weak to pursue their prey and enemies. Fearow are known for the piercing power of their beak and kill 20 human a year on average."

"This unit highly recommends that if you value your life, you should start running away from the Spearow and Fearow!" The Pokedex said in a high more nervous synthetic voice. Unfortunately Ash was too concerned with Misty's life to worry about his own. Or contemplate the possible emotional tone his Pokedex had spoken with.

'Misty's in trouble and there's too many to try and stand our ground and fight at once.' Ash frustratingly went over the situation as he ran. Tai Long had made sure to teach him that even professional huntsman avoided attacking too many Grimm head on at once single handedly, because it was too dangerous. That same logic applied here. If he and Pikachu just stood in one place and launched attacks at this many flying type Pokémon, odds were a few would inevitably circle around to a blind spot and take them out from behind. That is, if they weren't simply overwhelmed by the flock's sheer numbers.

'There has to be something we can do to turn this around,' Ash thought. He was more than halfway to Misty's location when he noticed an old, slightly rusted bike of to the side of the river. "That could work. Pikachu do you think you could manage to shock them all at once?" His partner gave a nod and affirmative "Pika!"

* * *

 

[Further down the river and beneath the water's surface]

Misty was not having a good day. She had gone through the very tense process of talking things out with a Kabutops that was very displeased with her for very obvious reasons. Luckily they came to an understanding, all be it a tense one. At the very least, the Kabutops and her child Kabuto would be with Misty for the short term. There was a silver lining with Kabuto. Apparently Misty's success in making a good first impression with Kabuto meant that the little one rather liked Misty, even as its mother gave Misty the cold shoulder. Unfortunately the day would take a turn for much worse.

While Kabutops was hunting for prey to feed herself and her child, she attacked a Spearow that she probably believed would be easy prey. While it did go down into a bloody heap, it let out a warning call before it collapsed into unconsciousness. The large flock that the call summoned immediately attacked Kabutops with vicious ferocity. Kabutops was able to incapacitate a few of the aggressive birds before ultimately collapsing from the relentless assault.

Misty was able to recall Kabutops into her Pokeball just in time before a Fearow swooped down to try and land a killing blow. Luckily she had been standing at a distance just close enough that she was sure she could recall Kabutops, and just far enough away that the flock hadn't initially noticed her. Unfortunately, the flock followed the beam of red light as it retreated into the poke ball she was holding. Which meant that all of their furious eyes were turned to glare at her.

She quickly recalled Kabuto and Psyduck, who had both been out at the time, and ran towards the river. She threw Staryu and Starmie's poke balls so they would land in the river. She shouted at them in a panicked voice to be prepared to dive in and out of the water to attack before she dove into the water herself. She felt a 'woosh' of air as she splashed in. When she looked down to see a cut in one of her shoelaces while she was under water, she realized with frightening clarity that she had reached the river just in the nick of time.

Now here she was, fighting for her life. Desperately hoping that, despite the fatigue she was starting to feel, that she and her Pokémon would be able to attack and successfully retreat under the water enough times to survive this. She broke the surface of the water to launch another waterfall attack, but before she dove back under the water something unexpected happen.

"Do it now Pikachu!" a voice called out of nowhere, and was immediately followed by all the still conscious Spearow and Fearow being struck by electricity. She quickly turned her head to where she had heard the voice come from and saw a boy with a Pikachu get on the old bike she had fished out of a junkyard.

"I'm going to get them to follow me!" The boy called out as the flying types fell to the ground after being momentarily stunned from the electric attack. "Either try to catch up so you can attack them from behind, or run off to safety in a completely different direction!" He told her as his Pikachu hopped into the basket on the front of the bike.

"Why would you- ?" Misty started to ask, only to be shocked into silence when the boy fired of a glowing blue sphere that went past her and knocked back a Fearow that had recovered faster than the others and tried to dive bomb her."

"There's no time to explain, just trust me!" The boy started pedaling away. "Hey! You stupid birds know that all Pidgey and Pidgeot are greater than you right?" the boy mocked the flock. Said flock gave out an angry, indignant squawk.

Misty and her Pokémon dove back under the water as most of the entire flock took after the boy. When she surfaced the only ones that hadn't taken off were already unconscious or were in no condition to fly. A few attacks was all it took for her and her Pokémon to make all of the stragglers unconscious.

"Staryu return!" Misty called out as pulled out a line of rope from her water proof bag. "You still have enough energy Starmie?"

"Kyah."  _"Of course, what's the plan? Are we going somewhere safe?"_

Misty started tying the ends of the rope around her and Starmie. "No we're going to try and catch up to him. I'll need you to help me catch up to him as fast as you can while pulling me along."

"Kyah." " _This is going to put you back in danger_." Starmie objected.

"I won't abandon him!" Misty addressed Starmie with a determined look in her eye. "This is the first time I ever came across some like me and he put himself in harm's way to save me! We're going to help him!"

"Kyah" " _Very well hold on tight_ "

* * *

It was times like this that Ash was glad he was rather athletic and had tons of energy. Though he wasn't happy about how rain had started pouring down to add further misery to his predicament. He was peddling as fast as he could. Which seemed to be just fast enough to stay just out in front of the flock while he channeled aura into his legs to peddle faster.

"Chu!" Pikachu yelled as it fired of an electric attack at a Fearow that was starting to get too close. Given that the basket wasn't made of metal, Pikachu was able to fire off electric attacks without also electrocuting Ash.

"Keep it up Pikachu!" Ash encouraged. "Remember to attack the closets ones, one at a time." Ash's current strategy was typical for him. Surprising and crazy, but simple and effective. Ash got the flock to chase after him. Then he peddles and Pikachu shoots electricity at the closet bird behind him. As Pikachu was focusing on one flying type at a time, the full power of its electric attacks was often knocking them out rather than just stunning them when the power of its attacks was spread out to hit all of them.

Pikachu's position in the basket at the front of the bike was also ideal. It allowed Ash's body to shield Pikachu from attacks that came from the few birds who managed to either come in too fast for Pikachu to intercept, or dodge one of Pikachu's electric attacks. While most people would say acting as a human shield was a brave but foolhardy move, it was proving to be effective.

"Augh!" Ash cried out as dive bombing Spearow that had flown directly behind a Fearow nailed Ash with a peck attack in the dead center of his back. Ash was glad that his aura protected him, and that the force of the impact propelled the bike forward a little farther out from the flock of Pokémon chasing him.

"Chu!" Pikachu angrily shouted as if electrocuted the offending Spearow. It then gave Ash a worried look.

"Don't worry, so long as my aura reserves hold it only feels like a hard slap on the back." Ash once again reassured Pikachu as he continued to peddle as fast as he could. Pikachu went back to frying the flock of Pokémon with electric attacks. 'Hopefully we can keep this up until they've all fainted.'

Unfortunately the trail Ash was peddling on wasn't a paved one, and eventually he hit a bump large enough that it threw him from the bike. "Gah!" Ash screamed out. He quickly grabbed Pikachu and protectively held him against his chest as he rag-dolled while the bike went tumbling away in another direction.

When Ash finally came to a stop and stood up, he and Pikachu saw that what was left of the flock was now circling around them to box them in and cut off their escape. Still as Ash looked around he didn't give up hope. "There aren't as few of them as I would like, but I think we might have a shot at taking this many of them. What do you think?" Ash asked his partner and got a determined "Pika!" "All right then," Ash said as he turned his hat backwards. "Let's show them what we're made of!"

The entire flock simultaneously gave out a battle cry and swooped in to descend on Ash and Pikachu. Pikachu let out a retaliatory thundershock, and Ash started the motions to form an Aura Sphere. Just as he was about to form the sphere, a massive thunder bolt came down and hit Pikachu. Immediately an entire electric storm billowed out from Pikachu at its center like an explosion. In a flash Ash was hit full force with the electricity, and was very fortunate that the aura that surround his body was able to protect him until it faded away just as the electricity in the air was gone.

Ash felt the same wave of exhaustion that he did back at the lab after he had killed the Beowulf. Only this time Professor Oak wasn't there to catch him as he fell to the ground next to Pikachu, who was also lying on the ground exhausted.

"Well buddy, looks like we were lucky enough for lightning to strike the same spot twice, and to be able to take advantage of it." Ash and Pikachu couldn't help but smile at each other from their spots on the ground even as the rain continued to fall on them.

"CAW!" a pained high pitch sound rang out, making the two partners go wide-eyed.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Ash groaned in disbelief. With a bit of effort and struggle Ash stood himself up to see a Fearow struggling to get back up. Given how far away and hurt it looked, Ash guessed it must have been at the edge of the blast radius of the huge amounts of electricity that had exploded out of Pikachu.

'This is bad,' Ash couldn't help but think as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. 'Pikachu's in no condition to fight after getting hit by lightning and my aura reserves have been depleted. That means I'm just as vulnerable as any normal human would be, and I seriously doubt I can form an aura sphere in this condition."

'I also made the mistake of stuffing the poke balls into the bottom of my backpack because I wasn't planning on catching anything on my way to Viridian city' At this point the last Fearow had gotten to its feet and started flapping its wings. 'If I try to get a poke ball out now I'll likely be attacked before I manage throw the ball given how fast it can fly.'

"Well, looks like I'm going to have to try and punch a bird out of the sky." Ash said as began to walk towards the Fearow, positioning himself in between it and Pikachu. He ignored the worried sounds that Pikachu was making, because he couldn't think of anything reassuring to say.

"CAW!" the Fearow screamed as it flew towards Ash and extended its talon's. Ash dove underneath the bird and could feel the breeze created by the talons coming close to raking his back. He quickly stood back up and turn around to try and attack Fearow from behind. Only to see the bird do a quick loop and come back at him with its wings encased in the glow of steel wing.

"Gah!" Ash yelled as he was knocked back by one of the wings. The Fearow immediately tried to follow up by hitting Ash with the other wing. Which is why it noticed the orange energy surrounding Ash only too late. "Ha" Ash yelled out as he swung his fist to hit the last Fearow with one final attack dead center of its body. The explosive force behind the punch knocked the flying type out and it went sailing across the air into a tree, where it then fell back down to the ground and didn't get back up.

Ash stood there with his fist outstretched in disbelief for a few seconds. "Okay, apparently my semblance let me survive a steal wing attack and follow up with something similar to a counter attack." Ash couldn't help but comment out loud in surprise.

Ash was brought out of musing as the rain finally stopped and a rainbow started to form in the sky. He went over to pick up Pikachu in his arms. "Want to guess who's up there in the sky?" Both Ash and Pikachu turned their heads to see the awe inspiring image of Ho-oh flying along the arc of the rainbow. Ash held up his Pokedex to try and get a proper picture and scan of Ho-oh this time.

"You know Pikachu," Ash started and got questioning "Pi". "If I had known the first time around that Ho-oh could help grant wishes. I would have wished to become a Pokémon Master without a second thought. Now though, I just wish I'll be able to save everyone." He heard a confident reassuring "Pika" from his partner, let him know that Pikachu was sure that they would be able to do so together. "You're right." Ash said as Ho-oh finally disappeared from view.

"Now let's get going. I'd prefer to be as far away from here as possible when the Fearow and Spearow finally wake up." Ash said as he started to slowly walk towards Viridian city.

Right after he walked passed the last of the unconscious birds he found the remains of Misty's bike. Not only was it fried to a black crisp just like last time, but it had crashed into a tree hard enough so that the frame was bent. It was bent up so much that it was probably more appropriate to refer to it as twisted metal. "I wonder how angry Misty is going to be this time." He wondered out loud. Right before he began to stumble. He caught himself though by grabbing onto the bark of the tree the bike crashed into to brace himself up. As he stood their wondering if he'd be able to get a safe enough distance away before collapsing, he heard a voice call out to him.

"Hey are you all right?"

Ash looked behind him to see Misty before his vision started to become blurry. He was able to make out that Misty was on top of a slab of ice the size of a snow board (probably made with an ice beam), holding onto a rope that was being pulled by Starmie. It reminded him a bit of the races in Alto Mare, only Starmie was flying in the air. He started feeling woozy, so he leaned up against the tree as Mist approached.

"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner, but Starmie can only fly short distances out of the water."

"Don't be sorry, I'm just glad you were able catch up to me at all." Ash was genuinely happy to see that she had once again followed after him just like old times. "I'm just feeling extremely tired. I'll be fine once I get far enough away from those bird to safely lay down and rest. Thanks for coming to help me and sorry about your bike getting destroyed"

"Forget about the stupid bike!" Misty shouted out in exasperation as she got off the ice block and ran over to him. "How can you say your fine when you have bruises all over you and have that wound!" Misty shouted out in worry as she pointed at the front of his shirt.

Ash moved Pikachu away from where he had been tightly holding him against his chest to see that there was rip in his shirt. On the inside the torn shirt was a nasty looking wound on his chest that he hadn't noticed.

"Huh" Ash stated tiredly. "I guess Tai was right about how sometimes you don't start to feel your injuries until sometime after the fight has passed." It was then that Ash finally lost consciousness. And started falling forward.

Misty caught him and Pikachu in her arms. As she did so a strange feeling swept over her. It lasted for about half a minute. As the feeling left her Misty shook her head and gently laid the boy and his Pokémon down on the ground. She carefully looked them over. They both felt… immensely familiar, but she couldn't for the life of her recall anything about them or possibly meeting them before. It didn't matter though.

All that mattered right now, was that she couldn't let them die!

She released Staryu to help Starmie stand watch as she got an old undershirt out of her bag. She ripped the old shirt to create makeshift bandages and bound them around the boy's wound as fast as she could without being sloppy. The boy was right about how they needed to leave before any of the wild Pokémon he knocked out regained consciousness. Once she finished addressing the wounds, she had Starmie use an ice beam to make a disc of ice large enough to lay the boy down on. Once he was lying on the disc Misty released more of her Pokémon.

And so the marathon to Viridian City began; with Misty in the center of the disk with the boy and his Pokémon; Starmie standing at the front using psychic to pick up and fling away anything that might slow them down; and the rest of the Pokémon she released firing water gun off the back of the disk to propel them forward.

Misty was determined to save this boy no matter what. She only wish she knew why she felt she needed to save him so badly.

* * *

 

**AN: Pikachu can learn headbut in Gen 2 by TM. So that's the second chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**It came close, but with me uploading this on the evening of March 31st I was able to keep my promise of posting a new chapter once a month. Though knowing my luck this is going to show up as being posted on the next day due to how late it is. I managed to land a part-time job recently so I had to schedule writing this story around that. Which is why this story is coming out so close to my self-imposed deadline. That and before I got the job, I picked up a Nintendo Switch and Zelda Breath of the Wild on the release date. I'll be honest I bought it just to eventually play Fire Emblem Dynasty Warriors (I'm a veteran fan of the franchise and own every Fire Emblem released in North America), so it was an incredible bonus for me that the latest Zelda turned out to be such an awesome game. After playing the game I had to parody the "It's dangerous to go alone" during this chapter.**

**I got to say writing the action scenes was fun. Maybe it's because of the fact I've taken self-defense classes myself, but I didn't have any writer's block when writing the two different fights in this chapter. That said let me know how they are to read. I think I did a good job of writing realistic-feeling fight scene. By that I mean there's no "How are the Avengers all talking to each other without ear pieces?" kind of moment. Then again that's just the very biased opinion I get from going over my own work.**

**Speaking of fighting, anyone who is reading this, feel free to tell me your opinion on what fighting style, weapon, or semblance a character from the Pokémon franchise would use if they were to get some Remnant style combat training. I'm hoping to get some comments that will make some creative sparks. Especially with how I'm currently considering possibly having 2 more Pokémon characters to have spent some time on RWBY's world of Remnant.**

**Crossoverpairinglover: Thank for leaving a review once you found this. It was awesome to see you show up as the first reviewer. I wasn't expecting anyone to leave a review until after I posted a second chapter and showed that I was going to continue writing this story. Once again thank you for letting me use your story for inspiration for making this crossover.**


	3. Criminals Can Have Depth

"What do we know about the situation?" A man with short trimmed hair and dressed in a standard black business suit asked in a no nonsense voice. He was currently speaking on the phone in a nice office room that had no windows. He was sitting at an expensive looking desk with a powerful looking Persian by his side. He had a tense look on his face as he spoke over the phone while looking at a screen. The content displayed on the screen was the reason he was having his current phone call. The screen displayed a popular community driven website known for its helpful atlas on Pokémon locations. The site currently had a letter at the top saying the site had been taken over by Team Rocket. What was even more infuriating was that it was signed "Giovanni" with "Leader, Team Rocket" on the line below it.

"It's likely the work of a hacktivist sir," the person on the other side of the phone answered. "Either from within the ranks of team Plasma, or simply one who is sympathetic to their cause. The timing certainly points to this being an attempt to thwart our operation, as well as build public contempt for our organization."

The man in the suit didn't seemed surprised by the news. "The fact that this happened right after we managed to set up a back door access to those servers does make this stunt a likely attempt to thwart our efforts. While Team Plasma may be our biggest obstacle to penetrating the black markets of Unova, they are far from the only opposition we face. It could easily be someone else with an interest in thwarting our efforts." Which was why he had set up this call. He couldn't just stop at speculating, he had to know all the fact to ensure he could resolve this issue. "I've put in too much time and effort convincing the public that I'm not directly involved with Team Rocket for it to go up in smoke now. That said, if this turns out to be a prank and we overreact, it will only cause more suspicion. I need more information and facts about this incident so I can do proper damage control. Make do with the few agents I sent with you, and uncover more about this incident."

"I've already have Sir." The agent informed his boss. "The reason this is most definitely Team Plasma is because we know they've abducted the two founders of the site. The letter on the site wasn't the only incident attracting social media attention. A young YouTuber known named Nick, who was known for the helpful trainer tips he offered on his show, was also abducted during an announcement broadcast he was doing for the site's founders.

"Exactly how young was he?" Giovanni asked with a noticeable angry edge to his voice.

"He wasn't a minor sir." The agent was quick to inform his boss before he became too upset. "The young man is at least 19, likely 20 years old. Remarkably, he was able to escape their custody and is reaching out through his channel about the incident. The fact that he did this right after his abduction is making some people think this might have all been a staged event though."

"Do what you can to expose this as team Plasma's doing as fast as possible. I'll have our technicians see if they can take down the letter through the back door we installed. After that we'll have the connection go silent. Hopefully our access point will be undetected until this all dies down." He sent out emails with those exact orders as he continued to talk. "If possible rescue the two founders. They'll likely be thankful enough that you can convince them to try and play this off as some sort of prank in the event we aren't able to pin this on Team Plasma. I know this a lot I'm asking of you and your team Pierce, but I need you to get this done."

"I will sir."

"Good I'm counting on you." Giovanni stressed to one of his best agents before he hung up the phone. He then hit a button on his desk to connect him to his secretary. "Matori I need you to start making arrangements with the leaders of the Big Three as timely as possible. I'd prefer to explain the situation to them before they hear about it from another source and make negative assumptions."

"Of course Sir, I'll get on it right away." Matori replied in a polite, respectful and professional voice. "In the meantime, you may be pleasantly surprised to hear that the "Distraction Squad" have returned after successfully acquiring a large amount of Pokémon that will likely be favorable to use for our purposes.

"Jessie, James, and Meowth managed to catch a large amount of Pokémon that could be useful?" That certainly did surprise him. "Send me the report and send them up."

"Right away Sir," Matori said. The document appeared on his computer before Matori had finished speaking. Giovanni looked over the report as he recalled the trio in question.

Despite the few skills the three had demonstrated in other affairs, they had a horrible track record when it came to stealing and capturing Pokémon. So much so that most members of his organization believed the three to be nothing more than bumbling idiots, while a superstitious few believed they were cursed with bad luck. Many members of Team Rocket believed the trio were only useful for causing distractions to draw attention away from their larger operations, or financing Team Rocket's R&D section by paying out of their own pocket for the materials used to invent devices for their more elaborate attempts to capture Pokémon. The Trio didn't just want to do steady work, they put a lot of their personal money and effort into attempts to make a grand heist that would make themselves rich. The resulting failures after they invested so much money into their plans often left them with little to no money afterwards though.

The truth of the matter is the trio did have some useful skills, but their over the top personalities and the way they generally operated made them ideal for distractions. The one distraction they caused by attempting to steal Pokémon with a gaudy musical and dance routine was legendary within the Team Rocket Organization. Partially due to them drawing all of the police officers to the other side of the city, and mostly due to the absurdity of it all. When his fellow grunts asked about the number of dresses James had used for crossdressing, James insisted that all the dresses were necessary for performance's production value. While it brought up a lot of…. questions about him, it did show James was committed to doing whatever it took to make a distraction successful.

The trio entered the room as Giovanni finished reading the report. "You wanted to see us sir?" Jessie asked somewhat nervously.

"Any chance it's because the large flock of Spearow and Fearow we found has finally put us ahead of quotas for once and you want to congratulate us?" James asked with a nervous smile.

"Cause if it aint, we'd be more than happy to go right back out there to gather more for ya." the talking Meowth stated. Completely prepared to try to appease his boss if he wasn't happy with them.

Giovanni put his hand up motioning them to stop. "That won't be necessary today." He also would rather do without their annoying groveling. "Hearing you three actually managing to succeed was just the surprising good news I needed to hear today."

"Ooh really?" All three members of the trio asked gleefully. Each one of them had large sparkling eyes and their hands clasped together in joy. They were clearly as overjoyed to be praised by their boss for capturing Pokémon as they were unused to it happening to them.

"Enough!" Giovani said firmly. They had other things to discuss, and he'd rather not deal with these nimrods when they were in one of their annoyingly happy moods.

As expected, his order caused the three stooges to gain a look of panic and they quickly stood back at attention. "Now's not the time to celebrate." The trio began to feel sweaty. "I'm currently dealing with a situation that threatens one of our recent intelligence operations." The three let out a sigh now that they knew they hadn't been the ones who caused the boss trouble this time. After all, what were the odd they would be a part of an ' _intelligence'_  operation.

"What kind of situation?" James asked dumbly.

"We were interested in acquiring data on the Pokémon available in the Unova region. If there was an aspect of the local Pokémon that was lacking, like Sinnoh's low amount of fire types, we could supply a much needed niche on the black market." Giovanni casually explained his business plan to the grunts.

"To that end, we found a private, not-for-profit company that has the largest collection of user submitted data in the region. Their fairly popular due to the amount of information they give away for free, but they do keep data on certain protected groups of Pokémon to themselves. We gave them the respect of offering to pay for access to all their data through one of our business fronts. After they turned us down, we bribed a security guard to let a small team of our agents into the server building to setup a back door access point. They succeeded and all was going well," Giovanni paused and let out a sigh for dramatic effect. "Until Team Plasma interfered." As Expected it got an enthusiastic reaction from the three in front of him.

"How dare they mess with you brilliant plan!" Jessie voiced in outrage.

"If those ever annoying, environmental extremist freaks were here right now, I'd show them Team Rocket's might and blast them to the moon." James enthusiastically promised violence to their adversary.

"Yeah! If those jerks are so unhappy with the state of the environment, then let's see how they like an environment that lacks oxygen to breathe!" Meowth agreed and expanded on James' metaphor.

Giovanni sat there and watched them continue making promises to inflict pain onto his enemies. Their overzealous and ridiculous personalities were often annoying, but it made it clear that they were sincere in their extreme loyalty to him. Which was the sole reason why they were among the few who knew who he really was, rather than the public persona he had built up. The sheer size and success that Team Rocket had built over time as an illegal business had attracted many members into its ranks. Plenty of which joined simply for personal gains and opportunities. As embarrassing as it was to employee the trio, minions with undying loyalties could be priceless when dealing with potential takeover attempts.

"As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm," Giovanni started, causing the trio to stop their ranting. "I already have some elite agents tracking the members of Team Plasma responsible. However, I could use the help of you three in an effort to undo the public damage their trying to inflict by smearing my name."

The three all shared a curious look with each other before turning back to him. "What do you want us to do Sir?"

* * *

 

_Misty was briskly walking with her hair down through a festival on a lovely summer night. The setting was a traditional summer Festival. From the large drums that were beating, to the strung up paper lanterns, and the kimonos everyone was wearing._

_Her own kimono was a cute pink outfit that was the shade of cherry blossom petals. On top of the pink fabric was cherry red cloud designs and water droplets woven into the design. The entire thing was held together in place by crimson sash that was tied into a bow at her back and nicely accented the outfit. In her hands was an old fashion fan that further reinforced the traditional festival look she was going for._

_She made a final check that her kimono was in order as she made her way over to a boy with z shaped marks under his eyes who was in an aqua colored kimono with a blue stash. As she approached she noticed that he was sitting with a Pikachu by his side, both staring at a Pokedex in the boy's hands._

" _Sorry I'm late." Misty said as she assumed a pose with the fan held up in front of her chest with its top below her chin. The boy look up from the Pokedex, only to openly stare at her as he took in her stunning appearance. Misty seemed to be slightly confused as to why the boy was just staring at her like that. She only mulled it over for a brief moment though. "Come on Ash, let's dance." She said while extending her hand to the boy._

_"Ah, sure." Ash sounded surprised by the request, but happy to accept it as he took Misty's hand._

_Misty giggled as she helped pull Ash to his feet. She turned to yellow Pokémon. "You two Pikachu."_

" _Pi-ka!" Pikachu exclaimed with an excited smile on its face. The three went over and joined a line of locals who were dancing to the loud drum beat. It took them some time to get the hang of it, but Misty, Ash, and Pikachu were soon merrily dancing in sync with the locals. They all had bright smiles on their faces._

" _Excuse me miss." Misty suddenly noticed an officer Jenny in a light purple kimono was addressing her as she approached._

[End Dream Sequence]

"Excuse me," Officer Jenny said as she gently shook Misty who sitting in a chair off to the side in a recovery room in the Pokémon center.

Misty slowly opened her eyes to look around the room. It took her a second before she remember where she was. 'Right, as I reached the edge of town I ran into Officer Jenny.' The officer didn't ask any questions when Misty specifically asked her to help get the boy to the Viridian City Pokémon Center rather than a traditional hospital, and immediately helped them without asking any questions. While the officer's erratic driving made her worry she might suffer a heart attack, she was sincerely grateful to have the help. One of the things she quickly learned while living on her own was that the Officer Jennies and Nurse Joys of the world always treated her fairly even if they had reason to believe there was something different about her. Which was the reason why she made sure the boy who helped her got looked over by a Nurse Joy in the first place.

"Sorry to bother you when you're feeling tired." The local Officer Jenny apologized. "I hope I didn't interrupt a good dream."

"Ah, nothing particularly interesting." Misty said trying to hide a slight blush as she recalled her dream. 'After the first time a guy helps me out, I start dreaming about us attending a summer festival together? Really? I may like romantic things, but I'm not some token female lead in an anime slice of life comedy.' Misty let out a yawn. "What time is it?" she asked somewhat sleepily.

"The sun should be setting soon. I left you to check out your claim a little over an hour ago. Having a motorcycle greatly reduced the time it took to get out there" The cop informed Misty. "I was able to find the location you mentioned with clear signs of a battle, but by the time I arrived there weren't any Spearow or Fearow around."

"What, how can that be?" asked a confused Misty. "Given the condition I saw most of those birds in, most of them should be unconscious until tomorrow morning. Are you sure you were in the right place?"

"Definitely, it would be rather hard to miss a large area like that were everything looked like it had been singed black by lightning. I search the area for a bit, until I overheard dispatch mention that they had just gotten a tip that a small group of thieves were in the area. I radioed in that they might have come across and taken the aggressive Pokémon you mentioned as they were passed out."

"You mean to tell me those nasty birds are in the hands of some criminals?" Misty paled at the idea of that many dangerous Pokémon being organized by people who could come up with sinister plans to use them for.

"I share your concern, especially since that inbreed flock of Spearow off the beaten path from Route 1 was among the last groups of 'Hyper aggressive Pokémon of old.' The reports I hear about them make me glad that most Pokémon become less aggressive after Professor Oak's research took effect. Otherwise I'd probably be responding to a lot more cases of trainers that needed to be rescued and escorted to the hospital."

The police women turned to look at Ash, who was on a bed that was normally used for Pokémon from the human-like egg group. His Pikachu was lying on a bed next to his that had been brought into the room. "It really goes to show what Pokedex holders are capable of, even on their first day. Probably helped that all that inbreeding led to decreased defenses for their increased attack power." (AN: Also, naughty Pokémon nature increases Attack stat and decreases Sp. Defense)

"His first day!" Misty said in shock. It was impressive enough that he had taken out the entire flock of aggressive flying types. The fact that he was able to do so as a new inexperienced trainer who was just starting out seemed unbelievable.

"I used the number the Pokedex provided to call the professor who gave it to him. He informed me it was the young man's first day as a Pokémon trainer, as well as the fact that he would inform the boy's mother when it was a good time." Office Jenny was unaware that Professor Oak was hoping to hear from Ash first, and that he was fine before calling Delia. "I made sure to tell him that both the young man and the Pikachu were doing well. Nurse Joy joined in and explained that the he was just dealing with exhaustion. She also explained that his Pikachu was tired as well and had been electrocuted, which is a lot less worrisome and easier to treat for electric types then most other Pokémon."

"Pika" a voice sounding in the affirmative came from one of the beds. Both Misty and Officer Jenny turned to see that Pikachu had woken up from.

"Looks like the little guy has woken up." Office jenny said with a smile, glad to see Pikachu awake and well. "It probably won't be too much longer before his trainer wakes up as well. I'll go tell Nurse Joy as I head out. She'll probably want to check on them both."

Once Officer Jenny left, Misty went over to Ash and lifted up his shirt much to Pikachu's confusion. She couldn't find any signs of the wound she had previously seen when she had caught up to him. Misty wondered if Ash had somehow done something to heal himself while he was asleep. "I don't remembering reporting the wound I saw. Or seeing it after we entered the building. Hopefully there'll be nothing unusual noted in his medical report." Misty said out loud. She fully trusted Nurse Joy, but it could be troublesome for Ash if there was anything that stuck out as unusual in his medical history.

"Psy" " _If you're going to feel up his chest and abs, stop staring and just do it already."_ An annoying voice called out from behind her.

"I wasn't!" Misty quickly yelled out with a blush and threw her hands up as she jumped back from Ash. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she suddenly realized what checking for the wound had probably looked like. She shook her head and turned around to stare angrily at the duck that was sitting in the room's corner. "When did you let yourself out anyways?"

Rather than answering her right away, Psyduck took a donut out of a box it had in its hands a placed it in its mouth. It chewed in bliss for a few seconds before swallowing. "Psy" " _Ah, long enough ago to finish the last of our donuts._ " Psyduck turned the box upside down and shook it to show that nothing was falling out. " _Can we go get more?"_

Outside the recovery room Officer Jenny was walking down the hall. As she made her way to the front desk, the cop was unaware she was being watched. Above her one of the ceiling tiles was raised to form a slight crack. From the ceiling a pair of cat like eyes watched Officer Jenny start to make her way out of the building. From his spot above the ceiling panels, Meowth gently laid down the panel he had lifted up to spy on the officer. He picked up a cheap walkie-talkie he had up in the ceiling with him. "Hope you're about finished up out there."

"We're getting there!" Came James's stressed response over the cheap communication device.

"Well Officer Jenny is heading on her way out," Meowth hissed, "and the last thing we want her to see is you two messing around with her bike! Hurry it up already."

"If you think it's so easy, why didn't you stay out here and do it yourself?" Jessie bit back.

"We needed someone to keep an eye out and it was best that I did." Meowth reminded them. "Ceiling tiles were created to hide building infrastructure, not hold things up. I'm light enough to hide up here just fine, but if either of you two were up here the tiles would break under your weight."

"Ekans" Meowth heard from behind him. Meowth ignored Jessie's angry reply about mentioning her weight and turned around to see a purple snake slithering up. The snake came up close to him, but maintained its distance to not put weight on the same ceiling tiles as Meowth.

"Hi ya pal. You get your task done?" Meowth ask the snake.

"Ek, ekans ek" it said as it nodded."

Meowth pressed back down on the button on the side of the walkie-talkie. "Good news guys, Ekans is finished up on his end." "Ekans"

"Good work Ekans" Jessie voice sounded back with Ekans smiling at the praise. "We finished up over here just in time. Meowth check the tracker."

Meowth pulled out a device that showed a blinking dot starting to move on a GPS like screen. "Is she starting to move east?" he asked.

"Seems so." James answered.

"Then everything seems to be working." Meowth said gleefully. "Once the good officer is far enough away we simply press a button and her engine will stall and stop working."

"And once she's stranded on the other side of town we'll make our move." James recited the plan deviously.

"Then we can swoop in and make our spectacular entrance without having to worry about Officer Jenny showing up before we make our grand exit." Jessie exclaimed excitedly. "By the time she gets here the show will already be over. Mwah, ha, ha, ha, ha."

* * *

Ash started to slowly open his eyes to see a clinical white ceiling above him. "This Pikachu is certainly looking livelier." He heard of to his side. He turned to see a Nurse Joy looking over Pikachu. "I'd just recommend more bed rest for the moment. It'll probably feel a little tired for a while longer." Ash was glad to hear Pikachu was okay. He let out a small groan as he pushed himself up.

"Pika-Pi!" " _Thank goodness your all right_!" Ash imagined Pikachu saying given the sheer relief in Pikachu's voice.

"It's good to see you up." Nurse Joy greeted. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was sparing all day yesterday, and I'm waking up the morning after." Ash told Nurse Joy as became consciously aware of his condition. Overall he felt fine, just a little sore and tired. Then again it was normal for him to feel groggy as he woke up. Give him a few minutes and he might not feel tired at all and be back to his normal energetic self.

Ash looked behind Nurse Joy to see Misty leaning against the wall to give Nurse Joy as much room as possible. Now that she wasn't in danger Ash took the time to notice how she had changed. She still looked tomboyish and had an athletic swimmers build. Only now she had gotten taller just like himself, and he couldn't help but notice that her build was a lot more similar to her sisters in body shape now.

Misty noticed him looking her way and pushed forward off the wall to step forward. "Thanks for helping me back there." She said humbly.

Nurse Joy gave a warm smile. "You should have seen how worried she was for you when she helped bring you in. Misty was frantic to explain the situation and try to figure out who you where before your Pokedex gave us the info."

"This unit's functions include serving as form of government identification." The Pokedex sounded off in a thoughtful robotic tone from its position on the bedside table next to Ash. "It was only logical that I provide such information when an emergency necessitates it."

"It was quite helpful. ("You're welcome.)" Nurse joy said referring to the Pokedex. "After that Misty practically stayed by your side the whole time waiting for you to wake up." Nurse Joy suddenly gained a somewhat sly grin. "You must have been quite the knight in shining armor to make this young lady want to not leave your side." Nurse Joy said causing Misty to blush.

"It wasn't like I was completely helpless, but well…" Misty trailed off awkwardly as she was trying to think of a way not to sound either ungrateful or meek and helpless.

"Don't worry." Ash said with a knowing smirk. "I can't imagine you as the damsel in distress type either. Well, more like it someone ever put you in that position you'd be angry and looking for the first chance to smack them."

"Darn right I would." Misty smirked. She then started thinking about how much this guy seemed to get her, like he already knew her. Combine that with the familiar feeling she got when she touched him and the dream she had, and she started wondering if they once knew each other. "By the way, have we met before?" Misty asked curiously.

"What makes you say that?" Ash asked to dodge the question. He remembered that Arceus didn't have much time when it came to him being able to restore other people's memories of what happened before the reset. He was curious to find out the effect it had on people.

"I couldn't help but feel like you were familiar as I carried you here. I also fell asleep while I was waiting and had a dream." Misty looked a bit embarrassed as she mentioned she had a dream. "We were both in it and looked ten years old. Thinking back on it, it felt like a memory from long ago that I had previously forgotten about."

"What were we doing in the dream?"

"Well, ah, we were-" Misty began, but luckily she would be saved from the embarrassment off having to describe a dream that sound like some love-struck girl's fantasy. From near the front of the Poke Center the loud sound of breaking glass followed by a heavy thud sounded out.

[Pokémon Center Lobby]

**CRASH!**

A heavy objected came sailing through the front, smashing the glass and sending it flying everywhere before bouncing along the floor before coming to a rest. Dark smoke started coming through the now busted up glass doors. A figure stepped in wearing thick boots that let them pay no mind to the broken glass that littered the floor. In the center of the currently empty lobby was the large mallet that she had thrown in.

Jessie casually strolled up and lifted the Mallet with familiar ease. She looked around and was disappointed to see that no one else was in the room. "What a shame. We try to make a dramatic entrance and there's no one around to see it." She said as she slid the handle of her mallet into a loop on a belt she had around her waist.

"Was it really necessary to throw that mallet through glass doors?" James asked timidly from a few feet behind her.

"We were trying to make this a flashy entrance, which along with smoke should have made for a good ominous sight. What's your problem?"

"Koffing" the purple Pokémon said, sounding glad to hear that the smoke it spewed helped contribute as it float on up to hover near James.

"Nothing!" James answered with a forced smile. Once Jessie looked away from him he immediately dropped the fake smile and started poking his index fingers together. "I'm just nervous whenever you're holding that mallet given your temper." James muttered as he looked down. He looked back up to see Jessie was behind the front desk, her hands on the keyboard that was connected to the computer monitor that sat on the front desk. "What are you doing Jessie?"

"Whoever was at this computer last seems to have left without manually locking it. Granted they were probably in a hurry to attend to a patient and it would normally lock itself after a bit of inactivity. Unfortunately for them, I got here before the happened." She said with a devious smirk as she started going through the computer's files.

"What are you looking for?" James asked curiously.

"I'm looking through the recent admissions." Jessie stated as if James had just asked her the most obvious thing in the world. "Other than that, I'm keeping an eye for any patients that seem either malnourished or have uncommon bruises. Then I'll be taking a closer look."

"In other words, you're seeing if there were any Pokémon that could have potentially suffered abused and want to make them a priority." James said with a proud smile at his partner. "It's times like this that remind me you got by as an unlicensed, underground Pokémon doctor before you signed up to work as a field agent for team Rocket. Despite how selfishly you act, you really do care on the inside."

"Shut up!" Jessie gave James a light WHACK with her mallet. "I just figure that Pokémon with ungrateful trainers wouldn't put up much effort into resisting us when we take them." Jessie huffed while trying to hide the fact she might have a soft side. She had a reputation to keep after all. "Also 'Nurse' would have been a more accurate title given my education and training." Jessie said with a pout.

"What is going on in here?" Nurse Joy asked in exasperation as she, Misty, and Ash entered the room. The Duo immediately turned to face them and posed arrogantly.

"What's going on is trouble. Now watch and be amazed!"

"Make it double. If we pull off a second job we might get a raise!"

Ash couldn't help but stand there and regret the fact that he had missed the opportunity to ensure he never met these guys. He heard Pikachu snap his tiny fingers in disappointment. Now they definitely were going to have to deal with the Rocket Trio and there constant attempts to make a grandstanding display with a motto. 'Why couldn't the reset be merciful and make it so they didn't exist?' He thought with a sigh.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

Ash looked over to see Misty's confused and surprised face. It was clear she was trying to come up with a rational explanation for the weirdos she saw in front of her, and was failing.

"Jessie!" the long maroon haired female looked the same as always save for a belt she wore.

"James!" the bluenet man looked exactly the same.

They were completely the same as Ash remember, and were just as annoying. Knowing his luck Meowth would pop up with some knew invention that would be a headache to deal with.

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth that's right!" Meowth said as he slid down on Ekans' tail like a rope from the ceiling, relieving Ash as it meant that Meowth's hands had been too preoccupied to carry in some new invention he would need to destroy first.

Ekans dropped from the ceiling to land on Jessie's shoulders and sent an annoyed hiss at Meowth.

"Jeez pal. I'm sorry if you found it demeaning, but it was the best way to make a good entrance." Meowth apologized. Ekans gave out a huff and looked away.

"Nurse Joy," Misty said gaining everyone's attention "do you have a Psych ward that was supposed to be getting new patients today?" Misty asked trying to make sense of the situation.

"Ahh!" The three members of Team Rocket face faulted as they hit the ground in shock. Much to Ash and Pikachu's dismay they quickly got back up with angry faces on all three.

"We're here to swipe all the Pokémon, not to get mental help." Jessie bark out angrily. "And I already had my darling Ekans pull the plug on the emergency transport system, so none of them are getting away!" Jessie gloated as she petted Ekans.

"Although now that I think about it," James dropped his angry expression for a thinking one and started tapping his chin. "I wouldn't mind us sitting down with a licensed professional and talking about how I feel like Jessie doesn't listen to me and my feelings enough." He then cried out with a loud "GAH!" as Jessie stomped on his foot.

"Man up!" Jessie ground her teeth in frustration along with James's foot. "We need to appear like we're on the same page right now!"

"You two need to save this for couples' counseling and remember we got a job to do!" Meowth yelled at the duo who blushed and gave him dirty looks.

"Fine let's get back to-" Jessie started before she was hit with a rapid spin from Staryu that sent her and Ekans into a wall. Ash couldn't help but feel like something happened as her body hit the wall hard, only to get back up with no serious injury. "How dare you do that, you bratty little girl!"

"How dare I, how dare you?" Misty accused with her hand outstretched and her index finger pointed straight at Jessie. "What kind of low life do you have to be to try to steal someone else's Pokémon? You're not getting mine so long as I'm alive."

While Ash had quickly learned that the Misty he knew had a fiery temper at times, the Misty that was currently telling Team Rocket off seemed to have Gyarados levels of anger steaming off of her. It made him wonder why she was even more opposed to the very idea of stealing Pokémon then before.

"We have to make a living somehow." Jessie retorted. "Now I've grown tired of your annoying prattling. Ekans see how they like your bite attack." she said as she pointed at Staryu.

The purple snake coiled around Jessie's outstretched arm before launching itself at Staryu. It landed with its fangs clamping down on Staryu. "Now swing it back and forth." Ekans immediately started slamming Staryu back and forth into the ground like a violent upside down pendulum.

"Staryu! Misty cried out in worry.

"Pikachu try to help her out."

"Oh no you don't! Koffing boosted tackle attack!" James cried out as he quickly grabbed and threw Koffing at Pikachu. After Koffing left James's hand it spewed gas out of its back to propel itself even faster, and collided into Pikachu with increased force.

"Pikachu try to roll with it." Pikachu hung onto Koffing as it crashed into him. As Pikachu was knocked backwards it dragged Koffing along with it causing the two Pokémon to roll backwards a full rotation before Pikachu threw Koffing into a wall behind him. (AN: Pikachu's back throw in later Super Smash Bros.)

"That's it! Thanks Ash." Misty said upon seeing the spectacle. "Staryu use rapid spin as it swings you upward."

The brown starfish spun in a circle, rotating rapidly like a bicycle tire as it traveled upwards. Ekans, who was still biting onto one of Staryu's five tips, went spinning along with it before it lost its grip and was launched straight back up into the ceiling it had slithered out from. Jessie caught Ekans as it fell back down. Meowth, James, and Koffing regrouped by her side.

"All right, I've had enough of you twerps!" Jessie shouted in anger. "It's time we-

"Staryu use Bubblebeam"

"Pikachu use thundershock."

As Team Rocket was screaming painfully in a cartoonish manner from taking the two attacks, Ash vaguely remember one time where Tracy was talking about how electricity could cause water to separate into two explosive gases. Come to think of it, wasn't the gas Koffing emitted rather prone to explode as well? He figured he should probably look it up in the Pokedex he had left behind during his hurry to get from the room he was in to the lobby.

**KABOOM!**

Ash felt a sensation as the explosion went off. He put it off to the side as he once again saw Team Rocket fly out of the front entrance they smash through on their way in and flew off into the distance. It was probably best for his innocence that this hadn't changed either. He'd prefer not having to worry about permanently injuring the three too badly when he need to focus on how to stop them. Plus after everything they put him and Pikachu through during his previous time as a trainer, it was actually satisfying to see them blast off.

"What kind of cat loses to a mouse?" Jessie asked Meowth.

"How about how did that minuscule mouse pack enough power to cause that big of an explosion?" Asked James.

"How about we figure out a way to say we got beat by two kids without sounding pathetic?" Meowth asked depressingly. "Because thanks to them-"

"Team Rocket is blasting off most unusually!"

TWINKLE!

"Thanks for getting rid of those three." Nurse Joy said as she poked her head out from behind the row of video phones she had been hiding behind. She grabbed one of the phones and started dialing. "Maybe I can call Officer Jenny in time to avoid having to redo the tiles."

A loud 'vroom' was heard before a chopper came skidding in. The tires made loud squealing sounds as they left huge skid marks on the tiles. The bike stopped just before the front desk.

Nurse Joy just sighed, "Or maybe its too late."

"Where's the emergency?" Officer Jenny said taking off her helmet to reveal that she looked the same as she always had. Though she was driving a completely different kind of bike. Which was apparently drawing confused looks from both Misty and Nurse Joy.

"You just missed it." Nurse Joy answered. "What's with the different bike? It certainly doesn't look like something that's police issued."

"That's because it isn't. My bike stopped working while on the other side of town. I had to commandeer someone else's ride in order to get here as quickly as I did. Though I'm kind of glad I needed to." Officer Jenny smiled as she patted the bike. "I always wanted to ride one these Harley Davidson models."

* * *

 

[ Rooftop of the Viridian Gym ]

"Well this isn't what I was expecting. It's a welcomed surprise though." Giovanni said with a chuckle as he look down at Jessie, James, and Meowth as they laid sprawled out in pain on the roof of his Gym. When the trio ultimately failed to catch a Pokémon, it would often result in the three enduring something very painful and humiliating. He initially wondered how they always seemed to survive at first, then he decided to just accept it and enjoy the humor in it. All man had their vices after all, why not enjoy the humorous results of his subordinates being punished by the results of their own failures.

Giovanni reached down and unscrewed a cap off of one Jessie's earrings to reveal a slots with an SD card and a place for a micro-battery. Both earrings were high tech spy cameras that aside from just recording things, could do some simple scans that could pick up things that could be missed by the naked eye. Despite their potential for espionage they were primarily used to provide entertainment for Giovanni.

As previously mentioned he found the pain and humiliation of the three hilarious, and the earrings almost never failed to record the results of their failures. Some people watched soap operas, he watch Jessie, James, and Meowth comically screaming in pain. He sometimes wondered how quickly a video compilation of their misery would go viral if he uploaded it onto the internet.

Giovanni reached into his custom brief case and pulled out a tablet and an SD card that he switched with the one in Jessie's earning before screwing the cap back on. He inserted the SD card into the tablet and started search through the files for the job he just gave them. He could laugh at the rest of their failures later.

"So how'd you three mess up this time? Did you all try dog-pile a Voltorb again? Giovani asked with a hint of amusement as he began to view the video and data of the impromptu mission he sent them on. He needed to make sure that they had done just enough for him to work the situation the way he needed. As he went over the data, he gained a much more seriously, intrigued look. In a few minutes he was done with his first viewing of the data, and it had him thinking of the possibilities and the opportunities they could bring. "What were the odds?" Giovanni asked as he put his hand to his chin in contemplation.

"Err boss…" Giovanni looked down to see that the trio had started to recover and were looking up at him with worry.

"Sorry we weren't able to hold out until you arrived." Meowth said weakly from his spot kneeling on the ground.

"It doesn't matter." Giovanni dismissed. "I've already made arrangements. The moment you three busted through the door and set off the silent alarm, I had everything I needed to get the media to tell the story the way I wanted. You three will receive the same payment you normally receive for playing decoy. I assume you'll want a portion sent to the cat shelter in your home town Meowth? And that you'll want a portion sent to the same medical scholarship fund as always Jessie?

The three instantly jumped to their feet and nodded their heads. All pain forgotten and happy to hear about the money.

"Yes Sir, thank you for your generosity." Jessie beamed.

"Yeah we really appreciate it." Meowth added in.

"We're always glad to be of help to you." James brown nosed.

"I'm glad to hear that James, because I've got another assignment for you." Giovanni tapped a few buttons and brought up picture on the tablet. He turned it around for the trio to see the image of the boy and the Pikachu that had beaten them and sent the three flying.

"See this boy?" The trio gave a simultaneous nod. "I want you to follow him, monitor his actions, and report back to me on everything he does. Find out what his goals are, keep a log of every Pokémon he captures. Inform me about everything you find on who the boy is and what kind of man he's likely going to turn into! No detail is too small! Make sure to even keep track of what girls he's likely kissed."

"Why do you need to know something like that?" James asked confused.

"I can't tell you that." Giovanni immediately shut down the line of questions the three were starting to form in their heads. "What I can tell you, is that this is the sort of task I can only give to the few employees I can trust to faithfully follow my orders without any additional information."

The trio immediately stood rigid and saluted. "You can count on us!" They exclaimed eager and willing after having their boss stroke their egos.

"We'll take care of this new Job." Meowth said confidently.

"We'll get right on it." Jessie promised.

"Let's go!" James said eagerly.

They then immediately ran towards the edge of the building and jumped towards a nearby tree.

"Looks like Team Rocket is branching out again!"

They shouted before disappearing into the foliage. A serious of loud thuds rang out as they somehow hit every branch as they fell on their way down. The crime boss looked over the side of the roof to see the three land on the ground in a heap, only to get up a second later and run off.

"Well at least their enthusiastic." Giovanni looked down at his watch and noticed that it was close to the time for the meeting his secretary had arranged for him. "Best not to keep them waiting."

* * *

 

[Some time later in Giovanni's private office]

"And that's how the events transpired." Giovanni finished

Giovanni was facing a large monitor. On the screen in front of him were three symbols. The symbol on the left of the screen was red and depicted a silhouette of Moltres inside a circle. The Symbol in the center of the screen was blue and had a silhouette of Articuno inside a hexagon. Finally on the right was a yellow symbol that showed a silhouette of Zapdos in a triangle. Underneath of each symbol was the silhouette of the people he was currently talking with. They were all using the same technology to disguise themselves. If anyone did manage to break the encryption on this transmission, they would only see four silhouettes talking to each other with warped voices.

"What will you do about the events at the Pokémon Center?" the voice in the center asked in a neutral tone of voice. "If the point was to have you defeat the grunts in an effort to dispel suspicion, didn't the fact that those trainers beat them before you could even leave your gym cause you to gain nothing?" The blue silhouette under Articuno symbol laid out logically.

"The grunts in question are infamous among Kanto's police officers for being knows as idiots who are more of a nuisance than a real danger." Giovanni explained. "I'll simply use my connections and influence to spin it as the leader of Team Rocket sending a message. A reminder, if you will, to the Viridian Gym Leader. Telling him not to overstep his place and try to assume control of Team Rocket due to the lack of knowledge of who truly sits at the top. When the press is done covering it, everyone will assume that the Viridian Gym leader is merely the man who receives Team Rockets anonymous messages to forward onto official channels and that they occasionally give money to charity through him. Just as they've always have."

"You said one of trainers involved might be of interest to us?" The yellow silhouette under the Zapdos symbol asked. The tone of voice made it sound like it almost instinctively knew the potential importance.

"Shouldn't we be focusing on the damage done to the Pokémon Center?" A loud passionate voice came from the red silhouette under the red Moltres symbol. "I get the situation he was in, but I don't think that was a reason to cause an explosion in a Pokémon Center!"

"An explosion the trainers who interfered caused." Giovanni said off the cuff. "To answer the previous question, one of the Trainers was named Ash Ketchum. Given the concerns you three have shared with me over the Shamouti prophecy, I believe it be in our best interest to keep an eye on the boy. If you interpret the line 'and thus the world shall turn to Ash,' a certain way it possible that he's the one the prophecy refers to. He certainly was quick to play the hero today."

"I get the feeling you already have people in place to keep an eye on him?" The yellow silhouette asked.

"Your hunches are eerily spot on as usual." Giovanni replied. "I've ordered the same three who pulled the public stunt earlier to follow him. Their loyal enough to faithfully follow my direct orders without any additional information about the young trainer. Their ability to gathering info on others is one of the few useful skills they have."

Not to mention that Jessie, James, and Meowth were both loyal and desperate enough to please him that three would likely be willing to follow their target huge distances across multiple regions for years if need be. Loyalty that was born naturally from the very circumstances of how the three had come to join team rocket.

Meowth had grown up a stray street cat. Growing up hungry, and stealing food just to have enough to survive. He got by thanks to some help other stray Meowths and a Persian living in the same situation he did. Eventually he decided he'd find a way to make it big, and he decided to do so by signing up with Team Rocket. The translation skills Meowth provided turned out to be valuable in situations when it was possible to get useful information out of Pokémon they had come across. Meowth eventually saved up enough money from doing translating and distraction jobs to fund the opening of a shelter back in his home town, with the stipulation it lay out food for the local Meowth and Persians that lived on the streets. He was able to do so thanks to Giovanni arranging the money to go through one of his legitimate business fronts. Merely arranging the paperwork had won Giovanni Meowth's loyalty without him even spending a dime of his own money on the shelter.

James had the luxury of growing up in a rich family. That luxury ended up turning into a nightmare when his parents tried to force him to marry a girl who had a BDSM dungeon in her basement. It became very clear to James that his parents only wanted the marriage to happen for their own selfish reasons. It also became frightening obvious that if he went through with the arranged marriage, he wouldn't be coming up from that basement anytime soon. Deciding that his freedom was worth more than any amount of money, James ran away from home. He was fortunate to run into his old childhood friend Jessie, who had convinced him to become a member of Team Rocket alongside her.

Despite his partner's sometimes violent tendencies, James really didn't mind them when he remember what his fiancé would have had in store for him. The relationship he would have been trapped in had his parents succeeded in marrying him off was probably the reason he gave a small portion of his funds away to rescue centers. Unlike Jessie and James though he always wanted to show up and give the money in person. The fact that he Team Rocket provided that money and gave him a job in which he felt free from his parents' expectations, was the Reason why he was loyal to Team Rocket and his Boss.

Jessie, the impromptu leader of the three had the most interesting history of the lot. Her mother Miyamoto couldn't afford to raise Jessie when she was born so she put her up for adoption. She then joined the organization that would become Team Rocket back when Giovanni's mother was still running things, and sent most of the money she made to the family that had taken Jessie to ensure her daughter had a happy life. Miyamoto was a great help to Giovanni when it came time to take the reins when his single mother passed away from natural causes (It was actually the reason he had been patient enough with the trio's initial failures to see what useful skills they could provide).

Jessie eventually was met with some rather unfortunate circumstance when she was older, but was lucky enough to have her birth mother show up to be there for her when she needed it the most. A while ago it was confirmed that Miyamoto died while searching for the legendary Mew. Along with her remains where notes that would lead to discovering fossilized remains of Mew. It wasn't long after Jessie learned of her birth mother's fate that she signed up to work as a field agent for Team Rocket just as her mother had.

"You did inform them not to attack this trainer right?" The red silhouette asked.

"You don't have to worry." Giovanni placated the silhouette's concerns. "Those three are abysmal when it comes to stealing Pokémon. If they do try to do anything to the young man they'll likely only end up as training dummies for him."

"Which means he'll get stronger and more useful if you point him in the direction of your business rivals or adversaries sometime in the future right?" The red silhouette accused with clear disapproval in her voice.

"I'm not going to send the boy into something that will get him killed." Giovanni respond. "The very reason I originally reached out to you three, was because we all shared the belief that too many young people had died pointlessly. That some level of stability and order had to be enforced to stop the death of far too many young man and woman. After all, that's the reason why you three originally established your "counter-teams" was it not?

There was a brief moment of silence among the four, then the blue silhouette spoke up. "He brings up a logical point. I think we can trust him not to do anything too unethical in concerns with this young man."

"What do your instincts say?" the red silhouette asked the yellow silhouette.

"My instincts tell me that we can trust him not to do anything too drastic." Said the yellow silhouette in a serious voice before continuing in a remorsefully one. "Mainly because this Ash Ketchum would be roughly the same age as Silver."

Instantly a low snarl could be heard from Giovanni as he clenched his teeth and fist tightly. From his side Giovanni's Persian looked up in worry. "Thank you for having faith in me." Giovanni said somewhat angrily in a forced, poorly controlled tone of voice.

"I think that reasoning is good enough for all of us." The blue silhouette stated "Isn't it?" The blue silhouette asked the red silhouette in a tone of voice that implied it better be.

"Yeah, it's good enough for me." The red silhouette said in a resigned voice.

"Is there anything else you'd like to discussed?" the blue silhouette asked Giovanni.

"No, feel free to leave." Replied a still visibly angry Giovanni.

The blue and red silhouette immediately logged off. The yellow silhouette remained on the screen though. "Look, I'm sorry for-"

"Just go." Giovanni stated evenly in low dangerous tone of voice.

"Sorry." The yellow silhouette said before signing off and leaving the screen blank.

"Curse him!" Giovanni muttered. He rose up and angrily slammed his fist down on his desk causing his Persian to jump back a bit. "He knows that's a sore subject for me!"

The intercom went off. "Sir, its Matori! Is everything all right?" She asked in worried tone. "I thought I heard-"

"I just!" His shouting interrupted her. He then stopped himself and took a deep breath. "I just was reminded of something and I just need a moment to myself."

"Very well sir." She replied back, still with a slight worry in her town.

Giovanni let out a sigh as reached into one of the drawers on his desk and pulled out a glass, a bottle of scotch, and a picture taken of him and young boy with crimson hair. He often felt the need to have a drink when he started thinking about his son. The very son who went missing and was presumed dead eight years ago.

Giovanni started pouring scotch into the glass, only to grow annoyed when he emptied the bottle as he filled the glass up to half of what he wanted. He violently threw the bottle into a waste bin and felt somewhat satisfied to hear it shatter.

"Per" Giovanni looked down to see Persian pawing his leg, looking up at him worryingly.

"I'm fine" He said as reached down to pet Persian. "I just need to relax for a moment and take things in." He sat down as he continued to pet Persian. He picked up his glass. "Maybe it's for the best that I drink a little less right now." He took a sip of his drink.

"You know a lot has changed over these past 8 years." He looked down to see Persian rubbing up against him as he gently stroked the feline's head. The very Persian who 8 years ago was a Meowth that he had originally gotten as a pet for his son Silver.

It hadn't been too long after the untimely passing of his wife. Back then the "family business" that he had inherited was a lot smaller. So along with a League approved leave of absence from the Gym, he was able to take a lot more time off to be there for his son. While somber, the time he spent with Silver was nice. He planned to be in Silver's life a lot more than previous, but he still had to start picking his work back up again sometime soon. So he had gone out to get a nice pet to keep Silver company while he was away. Little did he know that it would be keeping him company after the incident.

When the cops came to speak with him, he prepared to be interrogated or possibly faces charges. Instead he was devastated to learn that someone had kidnapped Silver. A few witnesses saw Silver being taken away by a masked individual into the forest. It wasn't long before police arrived with Growlithes to try and sniff out a trail to follow.

They soon found it, and while following the trail they came to a grisly site. The found the mask that matched the witness description next to what was left of the perp after presumably being savagely attacked and chewed up by local wildlife. While the body was too destroyed to get a positive ID, they determined that it was only the body of the abductor. It filled Giovanni with some sense of hope even as the officers told him that whatever chewed up the kidnapper likely dragged Silver off somewhere else. As the next few weeks of searching wore on, he slowly accepted the reality that he'd likely never see his son again.

He still wondered why it had happen. There was numerous small gangs and teams in the different cities of Kanto at the time and there had been escalating violence between them. Not to mention violent crime was at its peak during, and since those days. Did a rival criminal group somehow figure who he was and wanted to kidnap Silver to pressure him into an unfavorable agreement? Or was it just someone who saw a rich man who would likely pay a hefty ransom to see his son safely returned?

In the end he decided it didn't matter, he'd take his anger out on anyone who'd stoop to kidnapping or murdering a minor. He knew he was being emotional about matter, but he ultimately didn't care. Within a few weeks, suspects in both abduction and murder cases west of Mt. Moon were begging police to take them into protective custody. They all shared a trait in common with a string of people who had recently been killed. The evidence that they had kidnapped or murdered someone under the age of 18 was too weak to convict them, despite how obvious it was they were the one that committed the crime.

News of what was happening reached the rest of Kanto. While he was sitting down to watch the news one night, Giovanni listen to a reporter asking folks in some of the cities east of Mt. Moon what they thought. Many parents who had lost sons and daughters to violence said they would gladly have the local gangs and teams be replaced by his people. Many other who weren't parents, but had lost young friends and relatives agreed with the notion. On that night Giovanni saw that there was a huge opportunity to expand his family's business.

His first move across the other side of the Mountain range was to reach out to three teams that had gained the reputation as "The Big Three." These teams had been formed to counter the violent gangs and teams that plague their respective corners of Kanto and protect their local residents. They were liked by many of the local residents, but were condemned as vigilante groups by the police.

Once Teams "Valor", "Mystic", and "Instinct" reluctantly sided with Giovanni there was no stopping their efforts. When Giovanni's men moved into new cities and replaced the previous team and gangs, it often resulted in a decrease in the rates of violent crime afterwards. Many people believed that it more than made up for the increase in property theft. Giovanni's personal organization grew like clockwork. Street rats and other young orphans saw his organization as one of the reason they were surviving if they resorted to crime to stay alive. Previously established criminal weren't going to take them out if they "infringed" on their turf. Many poor and idealistic young individual signed up to be members of his organization.

One night a news pundit stated that his organization was growing so fast "that it was like a rocket taking off at the speed of light." That night Giovanni went into his son's old room and picked up one of the model rockets he liked to make. Giovanni turned in his swivel chair to see the very same model rocket sitting on the bookshelf behind him. He kept it in his office and renamed his organization so as too never fully forget the motivation that had driven him to expand his organization so far.

"It's been 8 years Silver. Eight years since I've made it so what happened to you is unlikely to happen to anyone else here in Kanto. Within a year the same will probably be true of Johto to some extent." In eight years he had gained a monopoly of Kanto's black market to the point that it allowed him a level of control over the criminal underbelly of Kanto. Nearly all career criminals now payed ' _reasonable fees'_  to Team Rocket to conduct their business in Kanto. They also knew that while they could hold up minors or commit light assault, kidnapping or causing the death of a minor would have,  _serious repercussions_. It wasn't often Team Rocket had to make an example of local criminals these days.

Team Rocket's expansion into Johto was going great as well, it wouldn't be long before he had a similar level of control there as he did in Kanto. They just need to take extra care not to greatly offend local religious worship and traditions, which unfortunately was rather easy in Johto. During their expansion into Johto, Team Rocket also enjoyed another motivational boon. They had come across Team Aqua looking into Lugia who had sometimes bean refer to as "The beast of the sea." The resulting clash between their groups forced Team Aqua to withdraw from Johto that day, and presented an advertising opportunity for Team Rocket. The incident made headlines in official news stories. It was also hailed on shady streets corners and in dark backrooms as proof that Team Rocket's existence helped keep far more dangerous and fanatical teams out of Kanto and Johto.

Many people currently living in Kanto and Johto saw Team Rocket as a lesser evil, if not a necessary evil. This, alongside confirmation of the generous amounts of money that had been donated to Giovanni's own charity organization (and sometimes forwarded onto others), had led to Team Rocket getting the least amount of heat from law enforcement in comparison to teams operating in other regions. The police certainly responded to incidents his agents and grunts caused, but there wasn't much being done to investigate and take down Team Rocket as a whole. Then again it helped that he bribed sympathetic politician to make sure the police's hands were tied on that matter.

"Still, if any of those other Teams manage to make the legends and doomsday prophecies come to life they'll become significant threats." He turned back to the file on his desk that had been compiled from preliminary info they could find on Ash Ketchum and raised his glass as if to give a toast. "Here's to hoping you'll be able to ruin my competitors' schemes for me."

* * *

 

**Author's Notes**

**Misty's dream is from the episode titled "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak" that takes place in season one. I'd like to give an episode number, but the banned episodes throw it off depending on where you look it up.**

**I decided to reveal the general back story of the Rocket trio this chapter given how I revealed Giovanni's back story this chapter (which is what makes this fic a partial answer to Crossoverpairinglover's Challenge 56: Pokemon; Reset Bloodlines. Giovanni and Ghetsis versions). The backstories I mentioned for the trio are based heavily on canon information, just in case you thought I completely invented the backstory I have for Jessie. I merely added a few tweaks. There's actually more I''v come up with that I'm going to reveal later on. Particularly that unfortunate incident as well as something else that made her decide to become a team rocket field agent. The mallet she has is seen a few times in the anime, but mostly for her to comically hit her teammates for funny cartoon violence. Given how this also a RWBY crossover, odds are I'm going to have her use it in a legitimate fight sometime in the future.**

**I also made it so Jessie continued studying medicine even after she failed to graduate and become a nurse as seen in "Ignorance is Blissey." During a flash back in "Forest Grumps" it is shown that when Jessie was a little kid she dreamed to be a doctor, a famous actress, and a trainer, in that order. Given how being a doctor was the first thing to come to mind, and she went to an academy to learn how to be a nurse, it seems that Jessie originally wanted to make a career out of helping others at some point during her life. In this story she continued to read about and study medicine despite accepting she'd never have a medical license.**

**The masked individual mentioned during this chapter wasn't who they were in the manga, because I like his radically different anime counterpart better (Pokemon manga and anime can have seriously different takes on a character, look up what May is like in the manga and you'll understand what I'm talking). The person who was wearing the mask in this chapter was just a nameless character, because unlike in the manga Giovanni isn't going to be disappearing and leaving Team Rocket in need to rally around someone else. Now let's move onto the impact the character's actions had.**

**What's cool about Team Rocket's rules of "no kidnapping or killing minors" that I created, is that there's actually some canon evidence in the anime that supports this notion. After Ash's mother learns that the Mr. Mime Team Rocket kidnapped in "It's Mr. Mine Time" was Ash in a suit, she states there's nothing to worry about, despite this being the same mother who was shown to be overbearing in episode one of the anime, and was shown to tend be over worried about Ash in the banned beach episode of the first season of the anime. She says she's sure they have nothing to worry about because she's confident Team Rocket, a known band of criminals, will just let her son go the moment they realize Ash isn't a real Mr. Mime. It should be noted the rocket trio do exactly that. Also in Mewtwo returns, when the Ash and the others are captured by agents of Team Rocket's assault team, Team Rocket agent 009 words imply that they'll be let go once they're done with their operation.**

**When I got to thinking about Giovanni in the games. Team Rocket is pretty much the mafia, one that has a single head running the two regions of Kanto and Johto unopposed by other criminals. Where in real life there would be a few different families running things in different cities. This leads me to think of Giovanni as someone who has a monopoly of the black markets of Kanto and Johto and has a substantial grip on the criminal underbelly. And in real life examples, monopolies often control so much of the market they can force their competitors to play by their rules, hence Giovanni is able to come up with rules that most criminals will follow out of fear of what Team Rocket does to enforce those rules.**

**Then I began to consider the CEO's of monopolies that were headed by titans of industry like Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and Carnegie. All of them had visions of the future of their respective industries that you could compare them somewhat to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (Microsoft has had to actually defend itself from accusations of monopolistic practices while Bill Gates was running it). In fact because of what JP Morgan did for the Banking and Financial systems, Wall Street actually closed on the day he died. That's was an exception to an honor that has only been done when an acting or previous President of the United States has died.**

**Another thing that was important to Rockefeller was family. When US Standard Oil was being taken to court, he ran off and successfully evaded the men sent to summon him to the court for some time. If they couldn't serve a summons to Rockefeller and bring him to court they couldn't proceed with the trial, thus they couldn't break up his company. Many historians believed that Rockefeller could have avoided going to court for a lot longer. However, while he was running he had a new grandchild be born. Rockefeller actually turned himself in and went to a court that would break up his monopoly, so that he could be there for his family and be in their lives. He deemed family more important than the business that made his one of the richest men in American History.**

**When I remembered that, and the fact that Silver was kidnapped in the manga, it became incredibly clear what would motivate Giovanni to take over Kanto's black markets and carve out a vision of how they would operate under his control. From there it became easy to see how he was able to get the fanatical followers you would see in the Pokémon Generation episode 5 "The Legacy". Also Giovanni making it clear the kidnapping and murder of minor, helped orphans living on the streets and minors who turned to a life of crime. As while they could still be mugged and had their goods stolen, they didn't have to worry as much about being killed if they were living in a bad neighborhood.**

**Another key change I'm making to Giovanni, he plans to take things over a lot more like Lex Luther and Wilson Fisk rather than how the other main evil teams operate. Mainly he'll focus on using corrupt business and political practices, rather than hoping that forcing a legendary to do your bidding will somehow get you what you want.**

**While I'm making comic book comparisons, I've more or less put Silver in the same box that Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes use to be in. There was a time when Jason and Bucky were considered to be two of the three comic characters that would be impossible for writers to bring back to life (The third was Peter Parker's Uncle Ben). Then writers were able to revive the two as the Red Hood and the Winter Soldier. Basically Silver's dead until I figure out a way to do something great with him. I have ideas but no concrete plans yet. If I can't work out something really good, Silver stays dead and is just a source of motivation like Uncle Ben.**


	4. Getting Ready Can Reveal New Info

**Cut to a room with plenty of head shaped indents in the wall.**

**DefconDeceiver: Finally, after all that time I was hitting my head against the wall, I got this done.**

**CRASH!**

**A man fully decked out from head to toe in black, full body armor walked through the door he had just kicked down.**

**Mystery Man: DefconDeceiver?**

**DefconDeceiver (nervously): Yes?**

**Mystery Man hands him a slip of paper.**

**Mystry Man: You've been served.**

**DefconDeceiver: Huh?**

**Mystery Man: Specifically it's from your conscious. It's upset with you taking this long to release chapter 4 when you previously said it would only take a few days. Now Goodbye.**

**The Mystery Man fades into the shadows and disappears.**

**DefconDeceiver: Did my sleep deprived mind just work in a Red vs Blue Season 15 reference?**

**Ash: I'm not sure if I'd know enough to comment on that,**

**DefconDeceiver turns to see Ash peering into the now doorless doorway.**

**Ash: but really what took you so long?**

**DefconDeceiver: Hubris and my inexperience as a writer. One of the original things about this story was the way I had you personally fight in chapter 2. Given how much world building facts I needed to reintroduce, I wanted to add a similar fight before I ended this chapter.**

**Ash: Didn't you say you had most of this chapter done already last time?**

**DefconDeceiver: Wait, Ash do you hear that? I think it sounds like a Skitty stuck in a tree.**

**Ash: I'm on it!**

**Ash immediately runs off.**

**DefconDeceiver (shrugging his shoulders): "Ha, good natured protagonist, am I right?"**

**Chibi Salem appears on DefconDeceiver's left shoulder.**

**Slaem: Indeed you shouldn't have to explain yourself to anyone.**

**Chibi Summer Rose appears on DefconDeceiver's right shoulder.**

**Summer: Don't listen to her, your conscious is already troubled by the delay. You owe it to yourself and the reader to tell the truth.**

**DefconDeceiver (still surprised by the sudden appearance of the characters on his shoulders): I think the truth is that after I post this I need to lay down and give my somewhat loopy, sleep deprived mind a rest. (Salem: After midnight? You should wait till afternoon the next day.) But yes, I did have most of this laid out when I said that, but I had to rewrite parts of this, because of how much time I spent trying to write a good fightscene when such a thing felt forced due to the flow of the story. When I was desperate for inspiration for a good fight scene I watched another episode in my ongoing endeavor to re-watch the entire Pokémon anime. Only for it to be an episode where the character of the day is an artist, takes care of team rocket like they're nothing when they try their shenanigans. And when Team Rocket tries to steal Pokémon, said Pokémon just saved themselves before Ash could help. It made me realized Ash doesn't have to play the part of 'The**   **Big Damn Hero' every chapter and I should spread that out with some chapters that are just on character interactions and development. So rather than ending this chapter with a fight, I ended it with a paraphrased quote from an artist that most RWBY fans are familiar with. With that out of the way,**

**Ash(Yells loudly): I'm back!**

**Startled chibi character disappears in a clouds of smoke as Ash reappears in the doorway with an adorable Skitty curled up in his arms.**

**Ash: and this little one is just fine now.**

**Ash scratches the Skitty under its chin eliciting a purr.**

**Ash: So what were we, … DefconDeceiver why did your pupils get big and heart shaped.**

**DefconDeceiver: *Cough*, No reason! Now you were going to leave as I got the chapter started. I'll take care of Skitty while the readers enjoy the chapter.**

**DefconDeceiver goes over and takes Skitty from Ash's arms.**

**Ash: Really? I could have sworn….**

**Ash is cut off as a metal overhead door slams down shutting him out of the room.**

**DefconDeceiver: Now that we have that out of the way,**

**Blake: Are you going to forget the disclaimer again?**

**DefconDeceiver: Ack! Blake what are you doing here?**

**Blake: I heard Ninja's of love got adapted for television. I've been waiting for you to be done with the computer so I could see if there are any subbed episode up online yet.**

**DefconDeceiver: Okay… RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth, Pokémon is owned by GameFreak, the Pokémon Company, and Nintendo. This author's note is finally closing so you can get on and read the actual chapter. And while you're doing that…."**

**DefconDeceiver starts cradling Skitty back and forth as hearts start floating up into the air.**

**DefconDeceiver: Who's the most adorable kitty in the whole wide world? You are, yes you are!**

**Blake(staring at DefconDeceiver while the bow on top of her head gave a slight twitch): For some reason I feel slightly annoyed by this.**

* * *

 

Ash hadn't previously given much thought as to why Misty hadn't cared so much about her bike being completely wrecked. He had guessed it was simply because he had ruined it saving her rather than himself from an angry flock of flying types this time around. Now he realized that there was an additional reasons why she hadn't really cared about having another bike be broken.

"I found a wheel." Ash heard Misty call out.

Ash looked up from the pile of scrap he had been looking through to see Misty pull a bicycle tire out from another pile of scrap metal nearby. It turns out that the bike Ash had destroyed this time was one that Misty had pulled out of a scrapyard, which explained some of the rust. Misty wasn't too upset about it, and simply told Ash he could make it up to her by helping her find a 'somewhat new one.' Which was why he was currently joining in a quick look through the junkyard that was hidden in the outskirts of Viridian city. They had gone through nearly all of it, and were currently checking the last corner of the junk yard.

"You find anything else Ash?" Misty asked.

Ash turned back to his pile of metal to get one more look over. "Nothing worth checking out over here. All I have is another wheel I found earlier."

"Figures," Misty said sounding like she had expected this outcome but was still slightly disappointed. "I went through this place when I came down through Viridian City before. I guess not enough time has gone by for enough parts to show up here."

Ash stood back up to face Misty again. "How often do you find a completely intact bike?"

"If we're talking about a bike that's still useable, not often. Nearly every time there's one or more parts that's either missing or needs to be replaced. I was rather fortunate to have found that collapsible bike where the only problem was that it couldn't be folded up anymore."

"Collapsible?" "Pika?" Ash and Pikachu both questioned as they simultaneously tilted their heads to the same side.

Misty blinked a bit at the two's synchronized actions before answering. "They were made with trainers in mind. With any other kind of bike a trainer would likely at some point have to choose between avoiding certain paths, pushing their bike through ill-suited terrain like a dense forest, or finding a place they could safely leave their bike and come back for it later. A collapsible bike can be folded and stuffed in a trainer's bag like any other item. With the surprisingly little space they take up for a bike, it's easy to carry them around when not being ridden. Some trainers say they've had moments when they forgot they even had the bike in their travel bag due to how light-weight they are. They're advertised as being the fastest way for trainers to get around on land without the risk of potentially missing out on anything during their travels. The cost of making them so they can fold up to take so little space, and yet durable enough to hold a trainer, makes them rather expensive though."

"So that's why they cost so much." Ash muttered to himself. "So what do we do with the parts we found?" He asked Misty.

"The Nurse Joy here in Viridian City likes to work on bikes in her spare time. We'll leave the parts with her. On my first time through we made a deal. I'd send her any parts I found, and she'd fixes them up. If we ended up selling anything we'd split the profits. Good deal huh?" Misty ended with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah," Ash responded somewhat impressed. "Though I'm a bit surprised to hear a fellow travelling trainer has such a business deal."

"I get that, after all most Pokémon trainers don't start thinking of opportunities to make money outside of prizes until after they've either been assigned a position by the league or give up on their careers as trainers. I, well" Misty looked at the ground slightly downcast. "I ended up learning how to be entirely self-sufficient earlier than most people."

Something about the way she said that made Ash feel like there was a story behind it. Maybe Misty parted ways with her sisters on even worse terms this time around? Before Ash could think about it any further, Misty decided to change the subject.

"Any chance your thinking of heading towards Pewter city when you head out of town?" Misty ask while failing to sound uninterested.

"Yeah how'd you guess that?"

"You mentioned that you were going to take the Pokémon League challenge. Pewter city is the first gym most trainers starting out on this side of Mt. Moon seem to be heading." Misty answered and shrugged her shoulders. "Not that I blame them, with all the rumors on how hard the Viridian City gym leader is on his challengers. That and its location makes it easy to understand why most of the trainers who challenge him save his gym for last so that it serves as challenge to prepare themselves for the Pokémon League."

Misty paused as she brought up a finger to scratch one of her cheeks. "I was heading that way myself, and I was wondering if you'd want to travel together."

"Pi-Ka!" Pikachu exclaimed happily to the point Ash could swear he heard him shouting " _YES!"_

Ash smirked. "Sure it'll be great to have you along for the journey! I can't think of a better way to travel then with a friend!"

* * *

 

[ Viridian City Gym ]

"Introducing the challenger Paul from Veilstone City." The referee announced. "This match between the gym leader and the challenger will be a one on one battle."

In walked a young man with purple hair and black eyes that seemed to be set into a scowl. A permanent frown seemed to be set into his face.

"It not often that that I have a challenger this early before the Indigo League championship matches started up." Giovanni stated out loud from his chair. He quickly released a Rhyhorn onto the field. "My reputation keeps most trainers away, either challenging near the end of their journey through Kanto or not at all. There is the occasional trainer who showed up on my gym's door step oblivious to the facility's reputation. When they learned of the preliminary challenge they had to overcome to face me most ran away never to return. It's even more surprising that someone had come here to try to win their first gym badge."

"I'm not so week willed as to run away from a few electric shocks. You'll find that my will is strong as is my Pokémon." Paul stated while enlarging a pokeball. "Turtwig stand by for battle!" he shouted as released his Pokémon.

"Your tenacity is admirable, but do you and your Pokémon have the strength and wit to preserve? I learned the hard way that the world can be cruel and unforgiving when I lost my son eight years ago. I set up my preliminary challenge where the battling trainers share their Pokémon's pain, to teach my challengers that we have to accept how tough this world truly is and we must overcome such adversities to achieve our goals. Now let us see if your Pokémon can overcome mine."

The referee waved the standard issue flags. "Let the match begin."

[Near the entrance to Viridian Forest]

"So you saw a young man with a red and white hat with a Pikachu on his shoulder?" James asked.

"Yeah" said the young bug catcher as he adjusted the way his net rested on his shoulder. "He looked like he was going to battle another trainer. If you hurry you might be able to catch up to him while he's battling.

"Thank you." James said before he, Jessie, and Meowth began walking towards viridian forest. Jessie and James adjusted the casual clothes they were wearing every now and again, showing how uncomfortable they were without their usual flashy attire.

"Hope dat kid never ventures past this point." Meowth stated as the three began walking past some warning signs.

'Beware Beedrill hives, known lethal hazard!'

'Finding a Pikachu is not worth your life!'

'Viridian Forest will not grant you superpowers, do not lick the tree sap!'

'Stay on the path to avoid damaging the forest and your hopes of reaching tomorrow!'

'251 days since last known fatality!'

"Well that's a bit ominous." Ash stated as he and Misty approached the signs at the path at the edge of town that lead to Viridian forest, notably sometime after the Rocket Trio had already gone in.

"You get used to it," Misty said rather casually. "Just make sure you don't get to use to it and stop reading the warning signs you see. There could be a warning about something you haven't dealt with before."

"Sound advice." Ash filed away the safety information as something to always remember. On Remnant he had been taught to expect the possibility of danger at every turn outside human settlements. That along with a heads up on what to expect should help keep him alive. "Is this what you wanted to talk about once we left town?"

"No, that's something else entirely." Misty said before she took a look around and spotted some kids that were playing with Pokémon that were most likely registered to their parents. "I'd rather have that conversation in a much more private setting, further in the forest."

"Oh, sure." Given how cautious Misty was acting he wondered if she was going to finally talk to him about that water semblance he saw her use or the fact she had seen him fire an aura sphere.

As they began walking into the forest Misty began to contemplate how to she should bring the topic up. After she had checked Ash into the Pokémon Center, she had to wait in the lobby at first while Nurse Joy accessed Ash's condition. She passed the time by trying to look up what move Ash had used on one of the computers in the room. That's where she discovered it was called 'aura sphere.'

At the mere mention of the word 'aura' the name Sir Aaron instantly came to mind. Misty had always believed that historic hero was in the same camp as her rather than having his abilities come from practicing some religion. She was also certain Ash was just like her given that he had apparently survived a direct attack from a wild Pokémon. However, there was the possibility Ash though his abilities were solely due to a supernatural or religious reason. 'If so he might react badly when I try to explain what I know it is.'

Misty suddenly froze in her tracks as she felt something rub up against her leg. Misty turned white as a sheet and started shivering as she slowly turned her head towards the ground.

"Caterpie" the pokedex called out. "The Worm Pokemon. Caterpie consume plant life at a rapid rate to allow for evolution to occur. It breaks down certain plant toxins to unleash a potent odor to repel predators. Years of Cateprie being caught by trainers then released back into the wild as Butterfree has seemed to cause some of these bug types to become extremely friendly with most humans at large."

"AAAHHH!" Misty who was very unsettled with Caterpie's friendliness, promptly gave out a girly scream and started swinging her bag around violently. She ended up hitting Caterpie in her mad dash to go hide behind the nearest tree.

Ash stared at the tree Misty had disappeared behind before turning his gaze back to the now hurt and depressed looking Caterpie.

Pikachu sniffed the air a bit, before he hopped to the ground and rapidly pointed at the bug. "Pika! Pikachu!"  _"That's our caterpie! Ash catch it!"_

Recognizing that it was indeed the first Pokémon he had ever caught, Ash prepped an empty Pokeball. "Okay then," Ash said pulling out one of the original pokeballs he had received from Professor Oak. "Pokeball go!" Ash said throwing said Pokeball hoping he wouldn't have to hurt Caterpie any further to capture him.

Luckily after three quick shakes, white sparks were emitted from the Pokeball as Caterpie was officially caught. Ash picked up the ball and posed as he was prone to do with Pikachu shouting with joy (I caught a Caterpie! Pi-Pikachu!). "Snapping Scan Picture." The Pokedex sounded out from Ash's pocket only to go ignored by the two being too excited to notice.

"Is it gone?" Ash and Pikachu were brought out of their jubilation as they turned to see that Misty had gathered up enough nerve to peek out from behind her the tree she was hiding behind.

"Um yeah." Ash decided not to postpone mentioning that he had caught Caterpie to later when Misty had calmed down more.

"Sorry about that freak out," Misty blushed in embarrassment as she looked ready to slap herself, "I used up the last of my repels on my first journey through this forest. I...have a problem with bug types, and I was too freaked out to remember my new counter measure for them."

"What counter measure?" Ash asked with his normal curiosity.

"Just a Pokémon that I came all the way out here to this side of Mount Moon to catch when I heard there was a few swarms spotted around these parts."

Misty drew out one of her Pokeballs and tossed it, releasing a white and blue bird Pokémon "Win-Wingull!" the Wingull, which Ash remembered being not native to Kanto, called out before it promptly perched on Misty's shoulder.

"Wingull the Seagull Pokémon. Wingull are common in coastal areas, where they fly overhead and dive bomb their prey, which include small, non-Pokémon fish and any idiot eating French Fries within 20 miles of the open ocean" Ash's Pokedex provided some information that may or may not be necessary but was still funny to think about.

Misty seemed to fully regain her self-composure, more than any time he had seen Misty within the vicinity of wild Bug types in the old timeline. "Okay, now that we're alone, it's time to talk. See Ash, I'm not sure if you've realized this yet, but you're different from regular people."

"I know, my training to utilize my aura definitely came with some perks." Ash stated, believing he had an idea of where this conversation was going to go. "I was surprised to see you've had some training as well, given that water semblance I saw you using."

Contrary to Ash's expectations, Misty immediately became confused. "Wait what are you talking about? I wasn't using aura, I was using my Bloodline!"

"Huh/Pika?"

* * *

 

[Silph Co. Headquarters, 11th floor]

"I now call the 40th annual meeting of the Pokemon Professor Association to order" Professor Oak, the chairman and one of three founders of the global group, spoke from the front of a long meeting table as many of the other highly regarded Professors of the world (who could make it this year), representing various members of the Trainer Aligned Treaty Organization T. A.T.0. ; including Kanto Professor Oak the Orange Islands Professor Ivy Johto Professor Elm), Hoenn (Professor Birch), Orre (Professor Kane), Sinnoh (Professor Rowan), Unova (Professors Cedric and Aurea Juniper) and Kalos (Professor Sycamore).

Professors from members of the Fall City Pact (Or Ranger Union as it was also known such as Professor Hastings were barred by TATO law fromn being members, just as it was illegal for any citizen of a T. nation from going to, or even talking to anyone from, regions such as Fiore, Almia or Oblivia due to the extensive Pokemon wars that had occurred for centuries between The member states and signatures of the Fall City Pact, that had mostly settled down into a Cold War that had persisted for roughly 40 years or so, roughly around the time when Oak also was able to instigate the changes that would lead to the safer world of the present.

"Before we begin, allow me first to welcome our two newest members; Professor Aurea Juniper of Unova, daughter of my fellow founder Professor Cedric Juniper, whose groundbreaking research into Pokemon origins is astounding to say the least."

As the young woman got a round of applause from all present, including normally stoic fellow founder Professor Rowan, she blushed heavily, more so as her father slapped her on the back in good cheer, but nodded he head in acknowledgment.

"We must also give a warm round of applause to our first representative from Orre, Professor Krane, whose research on the effect of the absence of Pokemon on humans makes me never want to go anywhere near Orre at all."

Even the brown haired Gateon Port native couldn't help but laugh at Professor Oak's joke as he also got a healthy round of applause.

"Now, before we get started on pleasantries," Rowan stated in his commonly serious tone, "I do believe we must address something that we all are suffering from as of late: a recent string of budget cuts, am I not correct?"

As Professors Oak, Ivy, Elm and Birch nodded in agreement with Rowan, the rest shrugged.

"Nope," Cedric couldn't recall any difference in funds.

"I just got started, my budget's low but it was that way to begin with" Kane confirmed.

"I actually got a pay raise this year," Sycamore recalled his recent increase in funding; for some reason all the female senators and deputies were always willing to help him out. He now had a lab in Lumiose City itself, where renting a single building cost more than renting half of Pyrite Town.

Elm and Birch looked dejected as Rowan recomposed himself "Well... most of us suffered budget cuts as of late, and I do believe we all know the culprit in all this"

At that, all the non-freshman scowled.

"That fool Dr. Young," Birch said angrily as he slammed both of his hands into the desk with enough force to shake the entire table, "the militaries seem to believe that his Mirage Project is more important than Pokémon, it's disgusting. That fringe science is nothing but a money pit, all the while money that could be used to figuring out the habitat requirements for Gyarados to be satisfied, and not rampaging in human inhabited areas, is unavailable!"

What do you expect, Bloodline hysteria has caused a unnerving trend towards militarism in all our nations," Professor Ivy pointed out as she shook her head sure, we need to take steps to deal with the threat that Bloodlines present to Humans and Pokémon alike, but not at the expense of Pokémon."

"Dealing with the threat, is not the term I'd use," Professor Oak said with a bit of steel in his voice, "Rather, I'd be more interested in finding out more about them first."

"I'm sure we could, as they enslave us all and take over the world," Elm muttered to himself, but loud enough for all to hear.

"Perhaps less researching them as a race or species, and more research aimed into finding out why there are more of them in recent memory than in the past," Cedric Juniper suggested, "Starting roughly 16 years ago, the number of Bloodliners in the world has multiplied drastically. Where once there used to be maybe, 10 in Unova at the most since even before the birth of Resharim and Zekrom, now there are thousands, with a vastly female majority. Similar changes in numbers have occurred all over the world in the same time frame and gender scale. What has caused this drastic change?"

"I'd certainly like to know," Aurea Juniper thought out loud, "I wrote my thesis paper on the origins of the Trubbish evolutionary line, and Bloodliners are in between Pokemon and humanity after all…"

"As interesting and groundbreaking as that research would undoubtedly be I would advise against it young lady," Rowan told her with a gruff sort of caution in his voice, "Politicians have a nasty habit of cherry picking your research to justify heinous things you never intended your research to be used for. They also have an unpleasant tendency to ignore anything that they don't want to there, just a Professor Oak about how it was when he was trying to publicize his findings on the causes of Pokémon on Human aggression, right Professor?"

Professor Oak seemed to be deep in thought, which Rowan interrupted with a gruff cough

Sheepishly he came out of his thoughts enough to remember what she had actually asked him

"Er, yes... you wouldn't believe the death threats I got, and even still get today," Oak seemed to try to joke to break up the serious mood. "Since we've already started talking about such serious subject matters, there something I'd like to share with all of you that has a small chance of being related to the emergence of Bloodliners."

* * *

 

[Rockets in Viridian forest]

"Just where is that little twerp?" Jessie let out with a growl.

"Come on Jess, with all the signs of battle we've seen he can't be too far away." Meowth reassured.

Pokémon Battles tended to leave traces behind. Foot prints on the ground was the most common. So far the trio had passed five spots that showed signs of battle, increasing the chances they would catch up to the trainer who had been battling.

"You know," began James, "seeing that the twerp is this much of a battle maniac is making me feel a little bit better about our lost."

"Oh please, do you really think he participated in every one of these battles and won?" Jessie asked in a voice that was dripping with skepticism.

**ZZZTT!**

Jessie's rhetorical question would go unanswered as the trio's attention immediately turned to the electricity that was shooting off in the distance.

"There he ez, let's go!" Meowth Shouted.

The trio ran towards where they saw the electricity shoot off from. They eventually came to a small clearing where a new young trainer with brown, spiked up hair, who was wearing a dark blue shirt. The trainers was staring intently at the Pokeball he was still holding in his hand.

The Trio shared a look before James stepped forward. "Excuse me young man, can I have a moment of your time?"

"…"

"Um, Hello?" James asked as the trainer hadn't even acknowledge James's presence.

"Huh?" The trainer said as he finnaly looked up. "Oh, what did you want?"

"Yes I just wanted to ask if you know what happened here, there seems to be large amounts of electrical burns all over the place."

"Yeah, I lost a battle. Some jerk with a Pikachu and a C..."

"This Pikachu trainer," Jessie interrupted eager to finally find their target and uninterested in a strangers woes. "He didn't have a blue jacket, an official Pokémon League hat..."

As she asked this, Gary suddenly burst into laughter "Wait, are you trying to describe Ashy boy!? Like hell would I ever loose to a jock like him who always acts first and jumps in without thinking. Thanks though, I needed a laugh."

Gary's laughter died down as he gained a contemplative look. "No the trainer I lost to could actually strategize. So far every fellow rookie trainer I've battled met my expectations for what Pokémon they likely have and the battles strategies I prepared accordingly work out flawlessly. So I was surprised and unprepared for him when it turned out he had two rare Pokémon on him. A lesson for the future I suppose, you need to be able to deal with the unexpected."

"Now, I'm off to Pewter City for a Gym Battle. Smell ya,…" Gary caught himself before he stated the catch phrase he needed to replace. "I mean see ya later losers."

Gary proceed to walk off not noticing the flabbergasted looks the rocket Trio had on their faces.

"You mean we've been running around out here all day after the wrong trainer?" James wailed.

"Snap out of it!" Jessie admonished. "You herd the arrogant twerp, there's a trainer out here with two rare Pokémon. So let's find him and hope he's unprepared for trouble!"

**Buzzz!**

The trio turned around and paled as they saw a giant swarm of Beedrill heading towards them.

"I guess we're the ones who have to prepare for trouble." Meowth.

"Looks like Team Rocket is running of again!"

* * *

 

[Back with Ash and Misty]

"Did you hear someone yelling?" Ash asked.

"No and don't change the subject!" Misty retorted angrily. "I know for a fact that my abilities are from my bloodline. They're what allow me to use water type moves as well as understand what my Pokémon are saying. I've learned how to do all of that without learning anything about aura."

"Sorry to burst your bubble Misty, but all of the super-human things I can do I learned from a mentor who also used his aura. Save for creating an aura sphere he was able to do everything I could using aura. Although," Ash started to think about how his encounter with Spearow and Fearow flock had ended. "During my fight with that last Fearow I ended up using what I thought might have been my semblance, but could have been the actual move 'counter'."

"A HA!" Misty shouted triumphantly.

"Plus what I've imagine Pikachu to be saying has been very vivid recently."

"Pika!?"  _'What!?'_

"Wait you shouldn't be able to understand Pikachu, it's not a fighting type!" Misty yelled as her confidence in her being right was thrown into question.

Ash just gave her a confused stare. "Why would you think I should only be able to understand fighting types?"

"Because it only works with me and water types. You used a fighting type, move so you should only be able to understand fighting types." Misty explained in frustration. "What does Pikachu's voice sound like?"

"I'm not sure how to explain it off the top of my head. When you hear the words in your head how do they seem to sound?"

"What, do you mean like telepathically? When I hear my Pokémon, it's just like regular speech," Misty answered looking pensive, "Then again, for all I know this is normal. I've never met someone like me before, maybe the rules are different with each Bloodline, I need to think about it a bit more." Misty looked down at the ground in thought.

"Or I just different due to my abilities with aura." Ash said getting a glare from Misty. "We'll figure things out as we go." Ash then proceeded to start walking down the path through the viridian forest again.

Misty suddenly gained a surprised look on her face. "Wait a minute." Misty suddenly called out.

Ash stopped and turned back to face her. "Yes?"

"So you're absolutely sure you were using aura when you fought those birds?" Misty asked. 'Though I highly doubt that.'

"I'm 100% percent sure that I used my aura to fight them." Ash stated with absolute confidence.

"But you still want me to travel with you?" Misty called out with a voice that seemed to be fill with an equal amount of confusion and desperation for the answer she wanted to hear.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Ash replied as if it was no big deal.

Misty's face seemed to be filled with surprise and hope for a fraction of a second, before she laughed and gained a warm happy smile. "No reason, Come on let's go." She quickly grabbed Ash by the arm and started marching further into the forest with an amount of happiness that confused Ash given that they were in a bug infested forest.

* * *

 

[Back at the Science Conference]

As his fellow scientist started going over his finding and data, Oak recalled the message he had received warning him about these deadly creatures known as the Grim.

_Flashback begins_

_"Hello I'm professor Ozpin." The man greeted with a warm smile. "I hope this message finds you well after your experience with Celebi, and you've had enough time to come to terms with the experience and contemplate its possible implications. I personally know how confusing it can be to try to understand non-standard time progression. With all that said, I hope you'll understand why I'll only give you the answers and data that I do._

_Flashback ends_

What information Ozpin did share had vast and serious implications. Sadly there was only so much he could share until he had a believable cover story for how he obtained the data. Luckily he was no slouch in that regard. He and Professor Hasting from the Ranger Union had shared nonmilitary research in secret for decades in order to better help all of man and Pokémon kind. Despite the fact that it was technically treason that could get both of them executed.

Upon hearing a stern grunt Oak looked up to see Professor Rowan stroking his mustache, but otherwise as stoic as ever. "A highly aggressive species that leaves very little to no evidence behind that it ever existed." Rowan mused out load after he had finished reading the empirical evidence Professor Oak had gathered. "I assume you brought this to our attention in hopes we could help supply additional data and evidence that you need."

"Indeed," Professor Oak answered frankly. "It goes without saying that the empirical evidence is difficult to find. Not to mention reports of their attacks might have been filed as aggressive Pokémon attacks. Many officers have gotten used to superstitious citizens who jump at their own shadows after an encounter with a dark type."

There was a lot of ominous stories and beliefs surrounding various dark type Pokémon around the world. There were even some areas of the world where they were referred to as the 'evil type.'

"After gathering what little empirical evidence I could, I turned to searching for anecdotal evidence." Professor Elm let out a noticeable snort. Oak old student was often eager to prove himself his equal since becoming a Professor. As such he had tenaciously built up his credibility with impressive amounts of empirical evidence. As such he greatly valued hard empirical evidence over anecdotal evidence that he saw was far less substantial.

"As it turned out various cultures around the world have tales about creatures that are similar in description to the grim. More curiously nearly all accounts of these creatures stop popping around the same time era. It should also be noted that the few tribes and ancient cultures that are believed to have revered bloodliners started doing so after tales of these creatures emerged.

"So these creatures might have provided an evolutionary incentive for bloodliners." Professor Juniper started to postulate. "If not for their creation, then for an increase in their preexisting numbers and for a more relevant place in those societies."

"If that's true, it possibly has worrying implications about the recent increase in the bloodline population." Noted a concerned Professor Sycamore.

"I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I also wanted to be prepared for any dangers such creatures could pose. Aside from that I figured I might get more info from my fellow Regional Professors quicker than when I go request Rota for any information they might have on the matter.

That got a chuckle out his fellow Researchers around the table. They, like many others, respected the Theocracy just for the morals it taught alone. The occasional roles its heroes had in history also helped its public image. That said, the Kingdom of Rota was well known for how secretive it could be when it wanted to, especially concerning information regarding their aura guardians.

* * *

 

[Later that night in Viridian Forest]

A desperate need to consume sustenance later confirmed that one rule at least was in common for people like Misty and himself, or as Misty insisted, people who were Bloodliners.

As much as she believed she was right, Misty was confused as to why what he was able to do differed from how it worked with her, she had no answers, and it wasn't worth asking her now. Not only was there no way in hell that Misty was going to make any sort of noise in the dark of night in an area home to known Ariados nests. (Apparently, some Johto Pokemon could be found west of Mt. Moon, but in low numbers), but she was also fast asleep in her own sleeping bag on the other side of the campfire as Ash silently prayed that Misty's sleep cycle was the same as he reached for Caterpie's Pokeball, using the inside of his sleeping bag to muffle the noise of the released Caterpie; Pikachu's own ears perking up as he heard it.

Ash placed a finger on Caterpie's crest, causing the bug to lose the apprehension in its eyes as he regained all his lost memories.

Placing two fingers on each of his temples, Ash stared intently at Caterpie 'Caterpie, I am speaking to you telepathically. Do you understand me?'

The bug just stared at him before making a few bug wheezy noises  _'Pikachu, why is Ash acting so strange? For that matter, why am I a Caterpie again? Last thing I remember I was flying around north of the Kalos region. now I'm back where I was born again and somehow Ash can apparently comprehend what we're saying in full.'_

The mouse, who had squirmed in deeper into the bag, swatted Ash in the nose to stop him from attempting telepathy from his end of the conversation "Pika chu cha pi"  _'Its sort of complicated, with time travel distorting space and the end of all reality to prevent from reoccurring, that sort of thing...'_

Caterpie went back and forth a bit as the situation was explained _. 'So basically, the space-time continuum has been broken and time reset, and it's our job to keep it from breaking in the first place?'_ Caterpie summarized.

"Pi." 'More or less.'

Ash continued to try and focus as he told them rather upbeat, "Hey, I'm actually starting to get the hang of this. I just need to focus on it."

"Chu-ka pi-ka-cha" Just don't try to figure out Poke Language to a point you don't need it, humans cannot comprehend the 500,000 basic rules to it without getting to the semi complicated ones, mildly complicated, rather complicated and unholy complicated ones.'

Caterpie crawled his way up to the top of the sleeping bag to stare up at the moon as he liked to do in the original timeline.  _'You know, regardless of the fact that the space-time continuum may be in danger of shattering for a second time, it might not be so bad to restart everything again. It was a lot of fun training with you in the original timeline back when you were a rookie. That and I got separated from my mate during a huge storm a few months before the last memories I have of the old time line.'_

Both Ash and Pikachu faces became crest fallen. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Caterpie"  _'Don't be, I was about to give up hope about ever seeing her again. Now though I know of an exact time and place I'll be able to go meet her. I just have to make sure I have enough masculine charm to impress her when the time comes."_

Ash had to suppress a chuckle at Caterpie's self image. He knew that Caterpie would grow up to be strong, but it was hard to picture a Butterfly as something that's filled with testosterone. "You found a way to impress her once buddy, I'm sure you'll find a way to do it again. Come on let's turn it for the night. One step we can always take to prepare for the future is to get a goodnight's rest to so that we're ready for the next day."

Both Pikachu and Caterpie nodded their heads and proceeded to lay down next to Ash. They all wished each other a good night and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 

[Dream Sequence begins]

_Ash was sliding down a steep slope in a forested area. He braced himself, just before he reached the bottom he quickly kicked off the slope, jumping slightly into the air before he came down into a stance that Tai had taught him._

_"Not bad," Said teacher noted from where he had been watching. "You got that down fairly quickly."_

_"I think my previous experience helped," Ash noted, while recalling the various times he had slid down a rocky surface while in a hurry. It was a habit he started to really pick up in the Johto region. "All I really had to do was increase how fast I could do it safely and making sure I land in a way that leave me ready to battle. So what's the next step to learning to have a landing strategy?"_

_"Something we'll be saving for another day. This is as far as I wanted to push you after the sparing match with Yang you had yesterday."_

_Ash started to rub his still slightly sore muscles as he recalled the match. "OK but there's still plenty of day light left, shouldn't we at least be working on something?"_

_"Don't worry. I already had something in mind."_

_xxxxxLinebreakxxxxx_

_"Like this OK?" Tai then demonstrated by casting his fishing-line far out into the waters that surround the Island of Patch. Ash who was already somewhat familiar with fishing was able to cast his line out fairly far. It came up only a little short of Tai's line. "So have you done this before?"_

_"Here and there a few times." Ash responded. "So how is this supposed to help me?" Ash wondered outload._

_"It's supposed to help you to learn patience." Tai explained. "I found that people who don't hesitate to act, tend to not like to have to wait to do so."_

_"That and well," Tai sounded slightly embarrassed for some reason. "My father took me on some father-son fishing trips when I was young. This will probably be as a close as I get to experience his perspective."_

_Ash suddenly got the feeling this life lesson suddenly got a lot more important for a different reason, but wasn't exactly sure what he should say next. "Haven't you ever been out fishing with Yang or Ruby?" Ash asked to test the waters._

_"I've done this patience lesson with Yang once before. She didn't say anything, but I could tell she was just putting up with it. It probably just didn't have enough action for her to enjoy it. Our little sparing sessions have always been a much more rewarding way for us to bond."_

_"And Ruby?"_

_"Qrow took her out for the patience lesson before I realized it was time for it." Tai muttered._

_"Oh" was all Ash could say in response. He rubbed the back of his neck while trying to think of what to say next. "I'm not exactly sure how this is supposed to go. I never really did anything like this with my dad. It's kind of hard to have father and son moments with your dad if he was never around."_

_Tai frowned. "Any idea where he went off to?"_

_"No, neither me nor my mom ever really knew. Just that he left on a journey and never came back."_

_Tai grimaced a tiny bit. "Given how dangerous the world can be, he might have died and no one found the body."_

_"That's not exactly a happier thought." Ash's voice was noticeably softer._

_"Yeah, believe me I know." Tai said sadly. "Sorry about that. So do you normally like fishing?"_

_"For certain amounts of time." Ash shrugged his shoulders to add emphasis. "Too often or too long without enough bites and I'll find it too boring. I'm more of man of action than anything else really."_

_"Don't like sitting still?" Tai inquired_

_"Not necessarily, I tend to be an energetic person, but that doesn't mean I don't like to relax in a hot spring every now and again. I really just want to do things, regardless if it's training, leisurely, or relaxing, rather than be in situations where I feel like I have nothing to do or there's nothing I can do." At the last part he thought about how he threw himself into Tai's teachings and training so that he was at least doing something about how he needed to eventually save his world and all the friends and family he had in it."_

_"Sounds to me like you want to live your life to the fullest whenever you can, and you hate the thought of being in situations where you're not able to move forward with your life."_

_"Maybe." Ash said while scratching his cheek. He thought back to when he lost to Ritchie while he had been competing in the Indigo League. Afterwards he had been unusually mopey for a time. At the time he had been unaware of anything else he could do to advance his career as a trainer. He hadn't heard of the battle frontier, and it hadn't occurred to him to travel to other regions yet. Instead he had just stayed shut in his room depressed for a while back then._

_"If you ever find yourself in those situation, take a step back and just think about the different ways to get around your problems. Either you come up with a solution to a tough situation you're dealing with, or perhaps you finally make a creative breakthrough and come up with an idea for a new technique or combo you could try. Qrow and I ended up brainstorming some crazy team attacks back in the day while we waited outside the headmaster's office back when we were still in the academy. Some of them turned out to be pretty effective._

_"Really?" Ash said curious about the concept._

_"Indeed we did." Tai answered, he gain a small mischievous smile when he remember the one time he had come up with the joke idea of having Qrow wear a skirt to distract the enemy. He quickly regained his composure though. "Seriously, if you find yourself in a point in life where you're confused and unsure of what to do, spend those moment thinking about what you can do rather then what you can't. Not only can it help boring or even difficult times go by, but you may come up with a great new idea or a solution to your current problems. Regardless of what you'll come up with, it help you to keep moving forward."_

_Before Ash could say 'thank you' for the advice, Tai's line went taunt. "Oh! I got a bite, Ash get ready!" Tai start to reel his line in while he saw Ash get up and move out of the corners of his vision. Tai presumed Ash was getting the net ready._

_"Here it comes!" Tai grunted out as he gave the fishing pole one final sharp pull upwards. Only to reveal a black eel with glowing red eyes behind its boney white face mask. "Ash get behind,"_

_Tai's warning was abruptly cut off as a glowing blue sphere of pure Aura hurtled past him into the eel-like grim and exploded. The entire grim was vaporized into black smoke that quickly faded away. "Me," Tai trailed off as he finished his previous sentence._

_Tai slowly turned towards Ash. He noticed that Ash was already wearing his relic-like gloves. "Good job, but that was a little too quick for your current reaction time." Noted a still shocked Tai who was trying to make sense of it all. "Were you somehow expecting that? Despite what just happened, it's very rare that a grim manages to swim into the shallow waters here around Patch."_

_Ash gained a cheeky grin and rubbed the back off his head. "I was surprised to see it was a grim. I was just ready to battle whatever we caught like I usually do._

_"… Wait, What?"_

[Dream Sequence ends]

Ash woke up with a small chuckle at the fond memory. Those events had been followed by a confused Tai inquiring about why he expected to get into a fight with whatever they caught. Only to become even more confused when Ash explained it was from experience.

Ash slowly sat up from his sleeping bag and stretched his arms. He took his time and basked in the warm rays of the early morning sun.

"Pidgoo" Ash herd from nearby. He turned his head to see a very familiar looking Pidgeotto pecking at the ground.

Ash smirked and reached into his nearby back pack. He pulled out a pokeball. "Looks like it's time for me to keep moving forward."

**AN: And Cut. So, who was expecting me to have Ash quote Monty Oum? Anyways I like the original material I added in this chapter.**

**Given how Misty's been living on her own I figured it forced her to learn how to-self-sufficient. Given Misty's attitude in the anime I think it's more in character for Misty be somewhat independent and not really needs Ash but genuinely wants his help and companionship. I also liked using the chance to capture Wingull explain what Misty was doing on Route 1 anyways. As I was writing I seized the chance for Misty to realize that even if Ash wasn't a bloodliners himself he wouldn't scorn or mistreat her for being a bloodliner. That Ash would treat Misty for being who she is, not what she is.**

**Considering he has a criminal empire to run, I figured Giovanni would want to make his gym as unwelcoming as possible, while still imparting his personal philosophies onto those that actual do have the courage to challenge him. And yes I did incorporate the same system that Team Rocket used in "The Battle of the Badge" episode into the preliminary match trainers take in order to challenge Giovanni, although it's possible to get around that if the trainer has a medical condition that would make it too much of a risk. Ironically Giovanni's efforts and his tendency to never go easy on challenger, along with Viridian city's physical proximity to victory road, lead to Giovanni being known as the ideal Gym leader for trainers to challenge to prepare themselves for the indigo League.**

**The next thing I did was somewhat reinforce how I'm shaping up Gary as a rival. Given his knowledge, his chastising of ash in the anime for not preparing or thinking enough before he acts, and his eventual scientific career. I'm playing up the idea that Gary sees their rivalry as brains versus brawns, and that it's only natural that he will come out on top. Also for those of you who played Pokémon Yellow or certain gen remakes, you might have noticed that Gary's opponent battled the same 5 trainers that were present in Viridian forest that you faced in the games.**

**The way I had Professor Oak share the information with his fellow regional professor was because he would see it as a good way to send a controlled warning to rational and discreet individuals as well as possibly get more info himself. The scene also gives a hint of my own world building. Also expected Rota to be as secretive about certain topics as the Vatican is in Real life.**

**Review Section:**

**Sondow23: Canon Jaune Arc proves it can take a while to figure out what your semblance is. Other than that I want to see if I can make a reoccurring gag out of Ash's attempts to discover his semblance only to result in bloodliner ability getting stronger. As for what his semblance is I have an idea of what I want it to be, but I want to wait until later to implement it to make sure Ash doesn't get too overpowered.**

**shadowace2400: I was going for foreboding for the ending of chapter 1. Though given the timing that this review was posted you might have been commenting on the end of chapter three, which was when I ended the chapter with Giovani sounding sinister and slightly melodramatic. But yeah, ominous does apply fairly well to the endings of both chapters.**

**ShadowLDrago: I hope you'll continue to find this story interesting in the chapters to come. If someone with a Deadpool profile picture says my story is interesting, I must be doing something right with the comedy at the very least.**

**Guest Post #1: Don't worry I always planned to do flashbacks to Ash's time on Remnant. During chapter two I had to focus on getting the story past the end of the first episode of the anime. Likewise in chapter three I was focusing on establishing the main plot point that has this story answer Crossoverpairinglover's challenge. As well as getting it out in a timely manner because Crossoverpairinglover messaged me and said he'd tell people about my story in the author's notes of one of his chapters. (Chapter 26. The tag tournament part 1).**

**Also thanks for helping find that spelling correction. In school I would always miss at least one mistake when I proofread my work. I'm a little weird in that while I'm proofreading my mind might remember what I intended to write instead of noticing the mistake I actually wrote down. In order to notice everything, I normally have to complete my writing then come back a few days later to proof reader everything all over again once my mind has forgotten what exact word is supposed to be where.**


	5. Birds, Bees, and Beers, Oh My!

**DefconDeceiver: There, the bold letters should stand out and grab people's attention.**

**A "Meow" is heard behind Defcon as he sits at his desk with a computer. He turns around to face a cardboard box.**

**DefconDeceiver: I'm sorry did I wake you Skitty?**

**Defcon looks into the box.**

**DefconDeceiver: "Blake!?" What are you doing curled up with Skitty inside her box?"**

**Blake: "I decided you were right about how cute Skitty here was."**

**Blake pets Skitty, who in turn purs.**

**Blake: "So what are you up to right now?"**

**DefconDeceiver: "Just putting some finishing touches on my latest chapter before I upload it."**

**Blake: "Really?"**

**Blake turns towards a window.**

**Blake: "But there's still daylight outside."**

**DefconDeceiver: "Yeah taking a bit more time now and not running myself so ragged. I also** **got a short but nice review that gave me some insight into what readers might actually like about my story. Which is invaluable, seeing as I'm someone who started writing earlier this year and I'm still playing it by ear. Which reminds me."**

**Defcon goes back to the computer on his desk**

**CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDACK WOULD BE REALY HELPFUL IN GIVING ME AN IDEA IF I EVEN KNOW WHAT THE HECK I'M DOING. RWBY IS OWNED BY ROOSTERTEETH. POKEMON IS OWNED BY NINTENDO AND THE POKEMON COMPANY.**

**Blake: Was it necessary to shout that in all caps?**

* * *

_[Inside the Viridian Forest]_

" _Go Caterpie" Ash shouted out as the tiny green bug materialized before a Pidgeotto. Causing both Misty and Pikachu to gasp. "Ha! I told you I knew what I was doing." Ash stated smugly despite the looks of shock on his friends faces._

_Misty clenched her hands into fist at her sides as she turned to Ash. "You don't have any idea of the mistake you just made do you?"_

" _Did I do something wrong?" Ash asked rather lamely._

_The high pitch sound of Caterpie screaming for its life as it ran away from Pidgeotto quickly demonstrated what was wrong. Within a few short seconds it was knocked against a tree with Pidgeotto swooping in for the killing blow._

* * *

"GAH!" Misty shot up out of her sleeping bag with a gasp. She took a deep breath before letting out a sigh at the fact that it had all just been a dream. She may have a dislike for bug Pokémon, but even she would feel sorry for a bug Pokémon having to face the prospect of a gruesome end. She calmed herself down before she started to get out of her sleeping bag to start her day and forget about her dream.

"Go Caterpie! Ensnare Pidgeotto's feet to the ground with string shot so it can't fly away."

Misty tripped and face faulted at what she heard Ash yell out. She quickly shot strait up to see Ash and a Caterpie facing off against a pidgeotto. A pidgeotto that was growing increasingly frustrated as flapping its wings only caused it to rise only a short distance of the ground as a white sticky substance kept the bird's feet tethered to the forest floor.

"Ok Caterpie, now we just have to wait for the right moment."

"Ash what do you think you're doing!? Bug types are weak against flying types!" Misty called out in disbelief, both at Ash's choice as well as the fact that the dream she just had seemed to be coming true. She made sure to grab one of her own pokeballs in case she had to intervene.

"I needed to make sure Pidgeotto wouldn't fly away after the first attack." Ash replied while he kept his eyes on the battle in front of him. More specifically Pidgeotto as it was exhausting itself while struggling to fly away from the ground. 'Got to time this just right.'

"Caterpie tackle it now!" Ash commanded right before Pidgeotto broke free. For a split second, Pidgeotto had a look of relief as she broke free of the string shot. Only for the look to morph into surprise as Caterpie tackled her.

"Pidgoo" Pidgeotto cried out as she retaliated with a gust attack which sent Caterpie flying into the air.

"String shot a tree to circle around into another tackle."

Caterpie quickly obliged. Using centripetal force and momentum gained from Pidgeotto's own attack to slam into her when she had taken a second to catch her breath. The increased force sent Pidgeotto flying back into a tree. She let out a shriek as she slammed into the trunk hard enough to chip the bark, and daze her.

"Use string shot to bind Pidgeotto to that tree."

"Pie," 'On it' Caterpie immediately started spewing out his string shot before gravity could have more than a second to pull Pidgeotto from where she impacted against the wood. This resulted in Pidgeotto being bound to the tree spread "Braviary" from her earlier collision as Caterpie wrapped every part of Pidgeotto's body to the tree save for the head. Pidgeotto struggle to get free before collapsing, panting heavily with swirls in her eyes.

"I think you can stop now Caterpie." Ash inform the small green bug who had been a bit too enthusiastic in applying as much string shot as possible.

Suddenly Caterpie pointed his head towards the sky. His own string shot fell back down on top of him in layers of silky veils as he began to glow in a blinding white light. When the light faded there was no longer a caterpie spraying string shot. Instead a metapod stood proud and sturdy.

"Congratulations Caterpie, I mean Metapod!" Ash praised the first Pokémon he had ever caught. He then looked back at Pidgeotto who was bound up in an overabundant amount of string shot. "I know I wanted you to make sure Pidgeotto was tied down for the count, but I think you went way overboard with the string shot."

Metapod gave a happy but embarrassed eye smile. "Pod" 'Sorry I got caught up in the moment. It was such a rush to actually beat Pidgeotto this time around! Maybe it was because I was going to evolve, but it just felt so good to spray my white sticky stuff all over her.'

"Pika!?" 'Did you have to phrase it like that!?' Pikachu cried out in a small bout of frustration that confused Ash.

"What was wrong with the way he said that?" Asked a naive Ash.

"Pi~, Pikachu" 'Sigh, I'll tell you when you're more mature.'

Ash squashed a childish urge to protests that he was mature, … enough anyways. While he was curious about whatever it was that Pikachu was holding off on telling, Ash figured his reunion with Pidgeotto was far more deserving of his attention.

After he had returned home from the Orange Islands, he had found one of Pidgeot's feathers on his window. He hadn't fully realized it for the goodbye it was until he had later learn that some unfortunate environmental damage cause by a construction accident on Route 1 had forced the pidgy flocks to relocate elsewhere. Ash had cried himself to sleep that night believe he would never see Pidgoet again. Only now here she was in front of him as a Pidgeotto once more.

Ash started taking slow deliberate steps towards Pidgeotto, doing his best not to seem intimidating.

"Ash what do you think you're doing? Just throw a pokeball at it!" Misty yelled out in alarm and confusion.

Ash just ignored her as he got within arm's reach of his first bird Pokémon. "Hey there Pidgeotto." Ash called out affectionately while reaching out a hand to pet her.

"Pidgoo" Pidgeotto angrily shrieked before trying to hit Ash with a peck attack. Ash was easily able to dodge to the side given how Pidgeotto could only thrust forward in one straight and predictable general direction.

"Ash!" Misty cried out in worry. "Huh?" only to be surprised when Ash suddenly embraced Pidgeotto in a hug that suddenly caused the flying type to go completely still it's eyes widening.

"It's been too long Pidgeotto." Ash gently whispered as he lifted one hand from where it had been hugging Pidgeotto around her neck.

"Goo?" 'How are we?' Pidgeotto stopped her line of questioning as Ash started petting the feathers on top of her head, eliciting a coo from Pidgeotto.

"It a rather long story, involving a few legendary Pokémon to make it even more unbelievable."

"Pidgoo?" 'You actually got the rare chance to see legendary Pokémon?' replied a wide eyed and clearly stunned Pidgeotto.

"Oh yeah, aside from those flames that took the form of Moltres, occasionally bumping into legendary Pokémon was mostly something that started happening after you left." As pondered out loud, but still not loud enough for Misty to hear (who was still staring at the whole thing with a sort of stunned confusion). "Guess that means I have a lot more to fill you in on than I thought. But it will have to wait till later. Right now the only thing to discuss is if you're want to come along with me again for the adventure." Ash said while taking out and enlarging an empty pokeball.

"Pidgoo?" "Do you even need to ask?" Pidgeotto replied cockily before she pecked the button on the pokeball.

* * *

[A short while later after a victory pose and a first attempt to make Breakfast]

"So what was with what you did at the end?" Misty finally decided to ask Ash.

"Huh?" Ash looked up at Misty confused.

"I wanted to know why you approached Pidgeotto the way you did." Misty looked off to side where said bird was showing Wingull where to peck the ground to find worms. Misty fed Wingull plenty of enough food since she caught it but the little glutton always seemed to generally be on the lookout for chances to eat more. "It seemed like a pretty risky thing to do."

"I find that to be an accurate statement." The Pokedex sounded out from Ash's pocket. "I estimated that it increased the chance of receiving hostile physical aggression by over 80%."

Ash scratched the back of his head a little sheepishly as he thought about what to tell Misty. He had a feeling saying a legendary mythical Pokémon granting him the ability to restore memories wouldn't be something Misty would be willing to believe.

"I had a feeling that I could get Pidgeotto to want to come with me. Besides if I had thrown the pokeball like normal and Pidgeotto had broken out, it would be free of the string shot. My whole strategy during that battle was to make sure Pidgeotto never really had the opportunity to fly away given how little a chance we'd have of following it on foot in this dense forest."

"Your plan was effective, but risky. I highly advise taking a more cautious approach in the future. While you probably didn't notice it, Pidgeoto did land a glancing blow that dropped your aura reserves by 1%. A larger or more fully evolved Pokémon could do even more damage."

"Wait," Ash said as he pulled the Pokedex out of his pocket. "How do you know how much of my aura reserves were used?"

The Pokedex flipped open to reveal a gauge on the screen with Ash's picture to the left of it. It looked like the aura gauge he had seen on Tai's scroll on the occasions he had used it to show Ash his Aura level. "One of my functions is to monitor your vitals in battle. Surely you remember this from the orientation Professor Oak must have given you after you qualified for your trainer license."

"Umm," Ash tried to think of an excuse for his memories being a mess. He noticed Misty raising an eyebrow his way, and giving him a questioning, critical look.

"However now that I look at that function in more critical analysis it seems that my code and functions have been modified from standard variations. I very likely have functions you weren't informed off. Would you like me to run the tutorial program?"

**GRRH!**

Before Ash could give much thought about what new function his pokedex had, his stomach grumbled and reminded him of the fact he still needed to eat breakfast. "Maybe later, right now is there any chance you can tell me what's taking so long?" Ash asked in frustration as he aimed the Pokedex at a Waffle-iron that Misty had found in the Viridian junk yard that was now plugged into the Pika-Power-Pack. It was currently filled with some instant-mix batter that really should have finished cooking by now!

"Scanning. The rate of the electrical flow of power that is being drawn into the waffle iron is lower that industry standards. After analyzing the worn out electrical wiring I postulate that this model was disposed because it started taking longer to cook as it aged and started to wear out."

**GRRH!**

Ash's stomach grumbled even louder. "So we just need to shoot more electricity inside to get it to cook faster right?" He turned and handed the pokedex to Misty "Here hold on to this for a sec. Hey Pikachu come over here."

"I would highly recommend you wait the additional time and not do anything risky." The pokedex sounded out in a worried tone as Ash unplugged the Pika-power-pack.

"Ash?" Misty said confused and concerned. "What are you?"

"CHUU"

**BZZT"**

"ASH!"

"Warning Aura Levels dropping!" After a few seconds, the light show died down to reveal a singed Ash on the ground who coughed out a puff of smoke, before shaking his head and opening the waffle iron. "It's all done," Ash exclaimed far more happily than someone who had just been electrocuted should. "They look a little crispy, but I think they'll still taste good."

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO LOOKS CRISPY!" Misty shouted out in disbelief.

* * *

[Later after eating after our heroes ate breakfast and headed out]

"Are you going to hold onto Wingull like a therapy pet the entire time until we're out of this forest Misty." Ash couldn't help but ask. If she just had Wingull out on her shoulder Ash wouldn't have given it any thought considering how he often carried Pikachu around. With how often Misty was petting the Wingull she was carrying in her arms while giving a weary glance around themselves, Ash couldn't help but feel it was because her fear of bug types was getting to her way to much. "Honestly, I think your being a bit too paranoid, you could just keep Wingull in its pokeball until you need to call it out.

"Well you're honestly too reckless, you proved that this morning" Misty admonished.

"You still going on about that, can't you just drop it all ready?"

"Maybe I'll drop it when we get to cook and eat the rest of the waffle instant-mix. That might be a bit though given how your little stunt this morning fried it so that it doesn't work at all now."

CLICK

It was faint, but Ash still made out the sound of a weapon being unsheathed. Ash took in his surroundings, his face stern and focused as he calmly extended his senses to try and determine where the noise had come from without telegraphing that he was on alert. Ash calmly placed his hand in his pockets, where he could feel the small lead pipes that he had pocketed on the way out of the Viridian junkyard.

Ash heard the slight rustle of grass, he casually turned his gaze in the general direction he heard the noise come from. Ash spotted a reflective gleam out of the corner of his eye right before someone jumped out of the brush with a sword raised over their head.

Ash quickly moved to place himself in between Misty and their attacker. Drawing a short metal pipe in each hand, he brought them up into an 'X' shape that caught the blade in between the two pipes.

"Splendid I,-" was all the attacker managed to say before Ash stepped forward while pushing the blade down and to the left before bringing his right hand and the pipe it was holding up to deal a powerful strike to the side of his opponent's Samurai style helmet that seemed to cause sparks to fly off.

'Wait a second' Ash though as he started to recognize the samurai style armor the would-be attacker was wearing.

"Excellent reflexes young, talented novice." The odd trainer congratulated him after he turned his helmet to face the right way again.

"Who are you and why did you try to attack us!?" Misty demanded.

"You can refer to me as 'The Samurai of Viridian forest." He said unfazed with Misty's temper, and completely unashamed about what he had done. "And that was a test to demonstrate weather or not this novice was prepared for the dangers that can try and pounce on you at any given moment. I must say, after showing so many how unprepared they are it was refreshing to find a novice who knew to prepare for trouble."

"And make it double!" James voice boomed out from somewhere in the distance.

"What do you think you're doing James!"

"Yeah! Can it Jimmy boy!"

"Pika," Pikachu immediately jumped off Ash's shoulder. "CHUUU" And fired off electricity in the general direction the voices had come from. The Rocket trio comically yelled in fright as they jumped out from where they had been hiding to run away.

"And you even taught your Pokémon to be prepared as well. Your truly are a breath of fresh air novice."

"Can you stop calling me 'novice'?" Ash found being called that even more aggravating this time around given that he had several regions worth of experience under his cap before time was reset. "I'll have you know I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."

"Your clothes, bag, hat, and shoes look to be relatively new and without too much wear and tear that would come from long stretches of traveling. Exactly how long ago was it that you disembarked from Pallet to begin your adventure?" Samurai asked confidently.

"... A few days ago." Ash sighed out after a pause. It was depressing to think that he was technically just a beginner in this new timeline even if he was mentally a seasoned trainer with multiple regions worth of experience under his belt.

"Now, now, there's no shame in admitting you're new to this, especially when you already show such promise. We all have to start somewhere." As reassuring as Samurai was trying to be, his efforts only made Ash feel gloomier as he was reminded that all of his previous accomplishments hadn't technically happened as far as this new timeline was concerned.

"Could we get back to the more important fact that you swing a sword at new trainers?" Misty asked. "Look I get that you want to teach rookies to be careful, but can't you see that what you're doing is a little drastic?"

"Dramatic example are often the best for shocking people out of inaction." Samurai said as if stating an obvious fact.

"Well, you certainly dressed the part." Misty said with a sweat drop.

"As nice as it was to meet you two, I must be on my way. Any other time I would be delighted to request you for the honor of a Pokémon battle. Unfortunately I must make haste with my current mission."

Ash furrowed his brow. He couldn't help but be curious about Samurai's 'mission'. Especially with how much Samurai had jumped at the chance to fight trainers from Pallet town (both figuratively and literally) in the last timeline. "Just what sort of,-" Ash began only to be interrupted.

"GAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

All three trainers turned to see Team Rocket running in their direction like their lives depended on it.

"Ash and Samurai jumped a few feet back and apart. Ash raised his arms up in front of himself, while the Samurai likewise held his sword out in front of himself pointed towards the incoming rocket trio. Both of them were ready for Team Rocket to attack them.

"Out of the way twerps." "This stings, move it or lose it." "If we don't all bug out now will be getting the point all too well and won't be able to bear it."

Only for the two boys to look on confused as Jessie, James, and Meowth ran in between and past them in a panic. All three trainers cough a little on the dust that was kicked up.

"Woah, how fast do you think they were going? They actually kicked up a small dust cloud." Misty wondered out loud.

"We should be more concerned about what matter of foe they're retreating from Samurai said with a frown.

**BUZZ**

A shiver ran up Misty's spine as she slowly turned her head in the direction that an audible buzzing was coming from. She immediately let out a shriek when she saw a large swarm of Beedrill rising into the sky in the distance.

"Quickly follow me. I have something close by that can protect us." Samurai turned and ran with both Ash and Misty wasting no time to follow him.

Ash was expecting to see Samurai's log cabin, and was surprised but still glad to see a small camp site with the same tent like net he remembered Samurai and Misty using for protection last time.

"Will that net protect us from the Beedrill?" Misty asked desperately.

"It'll help us to do so yes." Samurai responded.

"HELP?" Misty sounded like she was on the verge of becoming hysterical.

"It's not indestructible, if enough Beedrill strike it all at once the net will break apart.

"I suggest haste" beeped the Pokedex. "I calculate the closest Beedrill will arrive in approximately four minutes thirty two seconds, approximately four minutes thirty one seconds, approximately four minutes thirty seconds."

"That should give us just enough time. Move swiftly and apply this." Samuria said as he threw them two bottles of what looked like bug repellent.

All three sprayed liberal amounts of it all over themselves. Ash and Misty made sure to spray Pikachu and Wingull who Misty still had out and was holding on to firmly. Meanwhile Samurai was applying what was left of his can to the net they were bringing with them.

Samurai picked it up and brought the group over to a nearby outcropping of rocks that stood out in the forest. Samurai placed the tent like, bug proof net in the center of three boulders that rested against each other. "These rocks should serve as excellent barricades."

"So we'll keep our backs to the wall and focus on what's coming at us from the front?" Ash asked, catching onto the plan that was in line with some of the basic classical strategies that Tai had made sure to drill into Ash's head.

"Yes and as they fly towards us we'll be spraying these at them to ward them off." Samurai said as he opened up a knack sac to reveal various green spray cans. 'Bug Type-Pokémon Spray' was written on the can ( **AN: Think Bear-Spray for**   **Pokémon** ).

All three trainers got under net-slash-tent and grabbed a can. Misty moved Wingull to her shoulder and grabbed two. Then all three trainer aiming the spray in the general direction the Beedrill horde would most likely be coming from.

"I don't think they'll be enough to do so, but have your Pokemon ready to attack in case enough of them try to tear into the net from straight above." Ash and Misty immediately asked their Pikachu and Wingull to do so and got quick nods in return.

"T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" The Pokedex called out continuing the countdown it had never stopped.

What followed was a moment that reminded Ash of some religious description of plagues that happened at the end of times. For the longest 10 to 15 seconds of his life it was pure horror. The shadows they cast from their large numbers felt like it was darkening the sky. Despite the Pokémon Spray causing most of them to steer away from the net, quite a few still slammed into it rather upset and stabbed at it with their stingers before flying off in a huff past the net. All this happened while Misty screamed throughout the whole ordeal.

Fortunately it passed quickly enough, and left a shaking Misty free to catch her breath as she hyperventilated.

"Well that was intense." Ash spoke his thoughts out loud.

"Pika" 'That's one way to put it. Next time we blast Team Rocket off, remind me to make sure to pay them back in full for leading those Beedrill to us.'

"Somehow that seemed to be a lot of Beedrill for Team Rocket to annoy in such a short time." Ash responded to Pikachu while framing it so that Samurai would still think he was continuing to think out loud.

"That's because these Beedrill were likely already whipped into a frenzy by something else before those three ran across them." Samurai answered Ash's question with a frown on his face.

"What are the Beedrill around here normally that scary and aggressive?" Misty asked in dismay. She was really starting to regret not buying more repels after she caught Wingull. She looked at the now empty Bug-Type Pokémon-Spray in her hands and made sure to memorize the brand.

"No, not unless something attacks them first. Come here and look at this."

Misty and Ash walked over to where Samurai was crouched down, only to grimace when they noticed that there were a few Beedrills laying on the ground twitching. There was some left over residue from the Pokémon spray covering there bodies. Unfortunately various injuries were also covering their bodies. A few where missing limbs, and one unfortunate Beedrill looked to have teeth marks in its exoskeleton.

"What happened to them?" Ash asked through his shock. He couldn't recall seeing Pokémon looking this badly injured before.

"Somethings been attacking the Beedrill. Raiding their nest judging by the amount of angry Beedrill that swarm all at once." Samurai looked back in the direction that the swarm had flown off to, then back to the Beedrill lying on the ground. "There must have been either a queen in that swarm or one of them was carrying a kakuna that would spawn a Queen. The only reason Beedrill this badly injured wouldn't be attacking their enemy in their last moments was if it was to protect a queen."

Ash face became extremely crest fallen "Are you saying?" Off to the side he noticed that even Misty had a look of pity.

"It won't be long before these Beedrill stop moving entirely." Samurai somberly confirmed. "And there's nothing we can do for them this far from a Pokémon center. Their fate was sealed before we set eyes on them."

A nearby Beedrill was trying to prop itself up on its one arm stinger, a look of frantic desperation seemed to coat its face. Noticing it Samurai went over to it and knelt down in front of it. "You can rest easy now brave warrior. I promise you I'm going to put an end to the being that did this to you and your comrades. Your hive will survive. You can rest easy now knowing you fulfilled your duty." It seemed to calm the Beedrill down. It gave a nod of its head before laying back down on the forest floor. Samurai bowed his heads in a moment of silence that neither Ash nor Misty dared interrupt. A few seconds later Samurai got up to rejoin Ash and Misty.

"You said you were going to put an end to this. Do you have an idea of what's causing this?" Ash asked with concern.

"And what exactly are you planning to do when you find whatever is responsible?" Misty asked nervously while giving a worried looked at the katana that was sheathed at Samurai's side. "I mean given how they are a large amount of dangerous Pokémon, what if there's a chance this is a result of an environmental effort that's gone very wrong or something?"

"If this was part of a legally approved effort, then they should know better than to operate this close to a traveling route without closing it or setting up a warning signs. We're lucky the winds has thus far encouraged most of them to fly away from the main paths. It's likewise fortunate that you two were the only ones who ventured this far off from the main route today."

Ash and Misty shared a brief look with each other before turning back to Samurai. "Umm, how far off from the main route, are we, exactly?" Ash asked a little embarrassed.

"Pi, Pika?" 'Great, we're lost again aren't we?"

"Gull" Wingull let out in dejectedly.

"Don't be so quick to believe what Psyduck said about my sense of direction!" Misty admonished her Pokémon. Which made Ash wonder if Misty had problems getting lost even when she wasn't raveling with him.

Samurai pulled out a map from his knapsack. On it was a detailed view of the Viridian forest. There was also marking of what Ash had to guess were Beedrill hives that had been attacked and had yet to be attacked. "We're right here." Samurai said briefly pointing to the map before moving his finger elsewhere. "Whatever is doing this started attacking the Beedrill hives a few days ago deeper into the forest. Close to where I live here." Samurai pointed to a location in the forest that was closer to the edge that faced Pewter city. "They then moved on to these nest." Samurai said as he moved his finger to various points on the map, his finger moving closer to Viridian city as he continued. "I definitely want to stop this before it arrives here."

Ash wasn't a professional map reader, Misty would have argued quite the opposite in the old timeline. Still even he could make out a very alarming detail. "Isn't that close to the main route?" Ash asked in worry.

"Yes and I share your obvious concerns, especially when it's close enough to the residential areas on the outskirts of Viridian City. If the winds blow the wrong way the Beedrill might fly with it into those housing areas when they try to relocate.

"Forgive me but I must make haste and pursue." Samurai rolled up the map and stashed it back in his knapsack. Instead of leaving right away he paused for a second. His eyebrows furrowed as if deep in though. "You seem to be adequately prepared for danger, and I could very much use some competent help. Would you mind accompanying me on my mission?"

"You want us to follow you towards a giant nest of creepy crawlies!?" Misty asked rather loudly as she was shaking nervously at the idea.

"I get that you're afraid of bug types Misty, but something serious could happen if this issue isn't solved. I think we should help him." Ash implored.

Misty was conflicted, it shown on her face. Her worry was clear as day. Ash had made it clear to her that helping was the right thing to do, but it didn't make her phobia go away.

"Pika" Pikachu nudged Ash from his spot on his shoulder. 'Remind her that we're lost and convince her we'll need the samurai to guide us out of here.'

"You're right buddy. We definitely want the Samurai's help in guiding us out of here." Ash turned his head back and made sure to make direct eye contact with Misty. "Otherwise we might stay lost in this bug infested forest for who knows how long. We'll have to constantly be on the lookout for bugs, every day, up every tree, under every rock or log, and around every corner.

"OK! I get it. I'll help!" Misty interrupted. "Just please stop talking about it!" She had flinched at every mention of where bugs might be located. Meanwhile Wingull just salivated and gained a hungry look in its eyes.

"Thank you." Samurai gave a deep bow. "You humble me with your support." He stood up and quickly packed up his camp in a matter of seconds. "Come this way, we can strategize as we try to catch up to it."

They all quickly left the campsite. All of them avoiding looking at the beedrill laying on the forest floor that had stopped moving. Yet it made them all (even Misty) determined to put a stop to whatever was rampaging through the forest.

* * *

**BUZZ**

The three trainers were once again standing under the tent like net. Luckily the number of Beedrill flying past had been low enough that they didn't even need to worry about using the Pokémon spray.

"That seemed to be far less than the first time." Ash commented. He hadn't really kept count, but there had easily been less than half as the first time. Possibly less than a quarter.

"Let's hopes we see even less from here on out." Misty said dizzily with swirls in her eyes.

"With any luck that means they did veer off to attack that smaller nest like we planned on" Samurai said seriously. His face showed regret though. Ash shared the sentiment.

As they had run to catch up with whatever was responsible, they had realized the fastest way to stop this was one that left them feeling somewhat guilty. It was unlikely that they would catch up in time to stop the attack on the next nest. Since it was supposed to be one of the smaller ones anyways, they decided to forego trying to reach it in time, to instead to run to where they could position themselves in between the attacker and the next nest it would most likely attack. Ash realized any effort to have reached that small nest would have likely had been in vain and they would have likely failed to prevent it being attack. It still felt somewhat wrong to him to him to have just given up on saving that nest, even if he knew this was the right call based on the few tactics Tai had managed to drill into his head.

"Pidgo" 'I'm back' Pidgeotto cried out as it return from scouting alongside Wingull and Samurai's own Beedrill.

Pidgeotto and Wingull landed on the outstretched arms of their trainers. Samurai's Beedrill landed a little away from him. Likely not wanting to get to close while there was still some lingering scent of the bug-type repellent on his trainer.

"Ah Beedrill, did you locate the enemy." A quick nod and it gesturing towards the direction the three of them had flown from made its answer clear to everyone present. "It's heading right this way then?" Beedrill replied with another nod. This one ended with Beedrill staring down at the ground nervously. Samurai easily picked up on his partner's worry. "If you'd rather I give you leave and recall you to your Pokeball?"

"BZZT, BUZ, BZT" Beedrill took to the air with a stinger held high while refuting Samurai.

"Pika" 'While he's certainly brave considering how many of his kind have been viciously attacked.'

"Pidgo" 'More like he can't stand the idea of sitting this fight out and doing nothing. When we were out scouting it was clear he was barely holding himself back from attacking the creature responsible. He's seems happy with his trainer, but his instincts must be screaming at him to attack whatever is harming his fellow beedrill. As happy as I am to be back with you again I know I'd instinctively want to go protect my old flock if I heard that they were in trouble.

Flashes of light in his peripheral vision let ash know that Samurai and Misty had released their Pokémon. Turning their way Ash saw that Samurai had released his Pinsir while Misty had released Staryu and Starmie. She was also looking at another Pokeball she had in her hand, liking trying to decide if to release the Pokémon inside. She ultimately pocketed it while muttering something along the lines of "only if absolutely necessary."

Ash didn't give it more than a second of thought, given there could be any number of reasons why she hadn't released another Pokémon. He could recall from experience that the more Pokémon you used to fight the more difficult it was just to keep track of them all and coordinate them in battle simply because of the increase in numbers. In all honesty, if you were to release six Pokémon all at once a lot of them would just be waiting for an order unless they knew how to act on their own. Even then they often needed a fair bit of training in for such an event in order to have a good idea of how to fight almost as effectively as when their trainer told them how to do so.

"Remember the plan" Ash said to Pidgeotto. We're going to have those of you that can fly circle above and attack when you see a good opening." Ash could hear Misty and Samurai going over that part of the plan with Wingull and Beedrill respectively. "The rest of us will be fighting it on the ground. So make sure you don't hit us by mistake. Other than that make sure not to take any risk. It's best if I can focus on the fight here on the ground without having to worry about you while you're in the air."

"Pika?" 'So what was behind this?' Pikachu asked as it Pidgeotto.

"Pidgoo" ' It looks a bit like an Ursaring I once saw a want-a-be Pokémon hunter using, if you know what that is (Pikachu gave a nod), but mostly black with spikes covering it's back."

Ash eyes widened upon hearing Pidgeotto's description. 'Wait a minute, could it be?'

Ash's fear where confirmed when a roar bellowed out. It was different from the cries Ash had heard from the few variants he had encountered, but it was still easy to hear its primordial urge to kill and contempt for life. The creature knocked over entire trees as it burst into the clearing and tried to take a swipe at Samurai. Both Samurai and his Pinsir immediate jumped back before the creature of darkness could scratch them.

"What the heck is that!?" Misty cried out in Surprise.

"It's a grim. / A Grim." Both Ash and Samurai turned to look at each other. Their eyes widen slightly with surprise. Then a menacing roar brought their attention back to where it needed to be, and they both realized they'd have to save their questions until after the fight was over.

The Grim in question looked like a rather large bear. The number of spikes on its back gave Ash reason to believe they were dealing with an Ursa Major, an Elder Grim. Which meant that even though Ursa's were among the more common and basic Grim, this one would be tougher and even somewhat intelligent. The Grim had taken a moment's pause to take note of them and take large sniffs.

'Most likely memorizing our scents so that it can track us down if we run.' Ash thought. He clenched his fist a little tighter. He was glad he had changed his normal pair of gloves for Sir Araon's already. It was likely he was going to need the edge they'd give him. Given that Samurai had known this was a Grim as well, he decided he wasn't going to hold back and hope that Samurai would accept that his abilities came from Aura. Now that he realized how just serious the situation truly was, he wasn't going to take chances.

The Ursa Major stopped sniffing and started stalking forward on all fours. Ash decided not to wait for it to make a move. "Pikachu use thunder shock!" Ash cried out as he threw an Aura Sphere at the Ursa.

In response, the Ursa bent its legs on the side of its body that face Ash. The Ursa's body tiled just enough so that the aura spear impacted the hard bony spikes on the back. The Ursa grunted in pain from the impact, and the subsequent electric shock it received. It had been hurt, but only enough to make it give Ash an angry look before it started to charge at him first. Ash grabbed Pikachu and dive-rolled to the side.

"Wait for it to stand up for a swipe than go for the soft underbelly." Samurai called "That's how I dealt with two others like it, and this will be the last of three that showed up a few days ago."

"Wait, why didn't you say, GAH!" Misty screamed as Starmie used Psychic to move her out of the way as the Ursa charged at her. It had charged straight at her, ignoring the various attacks from the Pokémon in the air.

The Ursa seemed to be shrugging off the attacks from the Pokemon in the air with absolutely no problem. Give how those attacks were mostly landing on the same spikes (that Ash now noticed more thorough coated it's back than any picture he had seen before) that survived an aura sphere no problem, it didn't have much incentive to deviate from its impulses to prioritize attacking the humans.

"Misty!" Ash called out in worry.

"Focus on the Battle here and now! Pinsir use Slash at its legs when it goes to turn around."

Pinsir quickly darted in during the brief seconds when the Grim slowed down to turn. Its pincers glowed white as they landed a critical hit on one of the Ursa's front legs, cutting right into where a tendon was most likely located. Pinsir jumped back, but not fast enough to avoid a back hand, or claw, from the Grim. Pinsir tucked in on itself and went rolling along the ground from the force of the impact before jumping back up. Pinsir was roughed up but OK for the most part. Meanwhile the Ursa was groaning and starting to walk with a limp while shifting its body weight off from its injured limb.

"It won't be able to charge like that" Ash noted as the Ursa was now shambling over to them at a much slower gate. "Did you do this while taking out the other two?"

"Yes, I then had Beedrill use its string shot to create an opening to gut the demons. That said when I caught up to the second one it had grown and it was harder for my Beedrill to keep it bound. Given how this monster has grown even larger I'd like to request you have your Pokémon aid my Beedrill in creating an opening.

"Fine, just be careful." Misty's demeanor and tone said she go along with the idea but didn't particularly like it. "Just try and be careful OK?" She turned back to the approaching Grim, who apparently wasn't smart enough to wonder why the three of them were waiting for it to approach. "If it did grow as much as you say it did, then how did it do so in such a short time?"

Ash grimaced as he recalled a theory he had heard about Ursa Grim.

_FLASHBACK STARTS_

" _Remarkable, incredible, stupendous" As lengthy, bespectacled, green haired many rapidly said as he marveled at the red device he had folded out in his hands. "Yes, yes if we were able to produce these on a large scale while keeping all of its scanning functions in check it would do wonders to aid the study of Grim in the field."_

" _Don't give yourself a heart attack Barth." Tai said as he placed a cup of coffee in front of the man. "I doubt that devise alone could replace the contribution you have left to find while conducting your research."_

_The green haired man gained a scowl. "_ It's 'Doctor Oobleck,' _I"_

" _Didn't earn the PHD for fun," Tai interrupted. "I know, I just think you ought to loosen up a little about it." Tai said with a teasing smirk. "Now since Ash here was generous enough to show you that, maybe you can return the favor and help me give him some insight into the Grim."_

" _That sounds fair." Doctor Oobleck turned to face the other side of Tai's kitchen table where Ash was seated with a book about the Grim. "What are you currently studying young man?"_

" _Just got started on the Ursa, Tai was adamant that I learn about these right after the Beowolves." Ash answered._

" _A fair point, after the Beowolves the Ursa are most commonly sighted land bound Grim." Doctor Oobleck explained going into full lecture mode. "Some have used their noticeably interest in tree sap to argue against the notion that Grim don't need to feed, along with their attacks on rapier wasp nest."_

" _So Ursa are grim that like honey just like bears?" Ash asked curiously._

" _Unfortunately for the rapier wasp, more than just honey." Oobleck answered. "Most huntsman and huntresses operating around vale often encounter Ursa Majors more often the Beowolf Alphas. The running theory is that the Ursa have adapted similar feeding habits to actual bears as it helps them grow faster into Ursa Majors. The theory helps fit with the general consensus that if a grim isn't actively attacking humans it will act in a manner that will allow it to successfully attack more human in the long term. It would also make sense given how much nutrients bears eat. As Omnivores, bears eat tons of red meat, trees themselves, and when they attack hives they not only eat the honey, but the bees themselves._

" _Wait bears actually eat the bees?" Ash had to make sure he was hearing that right._

" _It's a common misconception that bears only want the honey. But for bears, the insect inside any insect nest are actually an excellent source of protein. In fact the Black Bear has even developed fur that is impervious to bee stings so that it can more easily attack there nest."_

_FLASHBACK ENDS_

"I heard a theory about Ursa once. They eat a lot in an effort to grow faster" Ash let out a long sorrowful sigh. "I guess the beedrill made for an ideal food for them." Misty immediately gasped while Samurai growled.

With an angry look on his face, Samurai marched forward to meet the Ursa face to face. The beast shifted its weight onto its hind leads and raised its right claw. "Hurg" only to become confused when sticky, white strings attached themselves to its right claw and pulled it upward. The Beast was pulled up to stand exposed on its hind feet by the combined force of Beedrill pulling him up with string shot, Starmie using psychic, and Staryu and Wingull using water gun on it's face to push it up. The beast struggle indignantly as is tried to get free and breathe air though the water guns that were drowning it.

"You've done enough harm here foul demon." Samurai said with a forced calm as he slowly brought up his katana ready to strike. "Now it's time to meet your end." Just as he was about to swing his sword.

**ROAR!**

Purple viscous liquid spewed out of the Ursa Major's mouth and slammed into Samurai with enough force to send him flying back. His Pinsir protectively caught him, that along with the protective glow of an aura as it shattered, saved samurai from the damage he would have incurred. Then the spikes on Ursa Major's back started to glow.

"Let go of the string and get out of there!" Ash yelled.

All the airborne Pokemon heard his warning just in the time to get out of the way of the numerous glowing pins that were launched from the spikes on the Ursa's back. The beast was eager to try out it's new attack and was let loose as many Pin Missile attacks as possible.

"What the heck was that?" Ash asked out load. Heck even the grim had a look of confusion.

"The energy readings were similar in nature to the ones produce by the moves 'Venoshock', and 'Pin Missile', both moves Beedrill can learn naturally." The Pokdex rang out. "If the theory you mentioned was correct, then it is most likely that consuming Beedril has also somehow managed to allow the Ursa Major to learn the moves Beedrill possess. Alert energy fluctuations rising!"

Suddenly the spikes on the Ursa's back started to glow once more.

"Move!" Ash scream as everyone start to run around the clearing in an effort to dodge the Pin Missiles that the Ursa was now firing with reckless abandon.

"Anyone have an idea of what to do now?" Misty yelled.

"I think I have an idea." Ash yelled back. "but we'll have to fall back first. Everyone this way!"

Both human and Pokémon alike were all too eager to get away from the Pin Missile spamming Ursa. They quickly followed Ash out of the clearing. The Ursa immediately lumbered after them once the humans were outside of the range it seemed to be able to fire its new attack. After following them a little ways, it caught a glimpse of the redheaded human disappearing into a bush.

The Ursa Major followed through the Bush. "Now!" Only to have its eyes covered is the same sticky strings from earlier, blinding it.

"Pinsir grab onto it with Vice Grip and then Seismic toss it into the ground!"

Heeding the Samurai's orders Pinsir bit its pincers down hard around the should of it injured limb, and then lift the Ursa Major right off the ground in a show of Herculean strength before slamming the Ursa into the ground on its back. The Ursa Major grunted out in as it hit the ground with enough force to embed its spikes into the ground, pinning it in place with its stomach face up.

"Now it's time to pick up where I left off" Said the Samurai as he stepped onto the Ursa's stomach while drawing his katana.

In response to the claim, the Ursa lifted its front legs (even the injured one despite the pain) and blindly swiped down towards the voice.

"Not happening!" Ash grunted out as he blocked the claws with his two glowing fist. They glowed a bright blue because Ash was using Sir Aaron's gloves to coat them in a thick aura to provide additional protection while he focused the rest of his aura into giving himself just enough strength to hold the Ursa Major's arm's at bay for the next 30 seconds.

The Ursa only further incensed raised it head, forming purple poison in its mouth.

"I don't think so buster!" Misty cried out as she slammed a small condense whirlpool into the monsters face. She was glad Samurai had his back to her as she maintained the force of the swirling current of water as it rotated the poisonous venoshock back into the Ursa's face while simultaneously choking it.

Samurai raised his sword over his head, the sun gleamed of the blade. "This time you will not-"

The ground suddenly shook as the Ursa roared in pain as it tried using Pin Missile despite it immediately blowing up on its back because there was no room between the spikes and the ground."

"Quit grandstanding and stab it!" Misty yelled.

The Samurai quickly obliged, stabbing his blade down in to the left side of the Ursa's belly and with a grunt of effort slid the katana out the right side of the Grim.

The explosion stopped and the body of the Ursa Major went limp as black mist started to rise up from the corpse. All three trainer collapse in relief and exhaustion. The various Pokémon were immediately by their sides to see if they were okay. After some time catching their breath Samurai was the first to talk.

"You help was invaluable, I will gladly repay my debt and help guide you out of the forest. Might I interest you on stopping by my cabin to rest for the night? It's on the scenic route, but it will still eventually lead you towards Pewters City."

"How's that sound to you Misty?"

"Four wall and a roof over my head to separate me from whatever is crawling around out here at night? Count me in." Mist said with a tired smile and a thumbs up.

"We'll be happy to spend the night Samurai."

"Splendid" Samurai stated as he got up and offered Ash a hand. "Perhaps you could also tell me the tale of how you came to know about the Grim?" Samurai asked as he helped pull Ash to his feet.

"Sure," Ash replied as he went to help Misty up, "so long as you don't mind doing the same."

"Certainly, it all began when I found myself on a continent called Anima and had the chance encounter with a huntsman called Cloud Strife."

* * *

**AN: Just so you are aware, Pinsir could learn slash in Gen 1. Hope this chapter didn't get a little too dark for those of you reading. If it did, I should probably warn you that despite the overall hopeful tone that's prevalent in the two series that this story draws inspiration from, those series have some rather serious subject matter. Likewise I'm going to steer this story away from angst but I'm not going to try to gloss over serious subject matter too much either.**

**Got to say this chapter really came together the way it did because I do end up taking my time and researching subjects to have a better idea of what I'm writing about. At first I thought I was just going to have to write the Beedrill made their nest around trees that had a lot of sap to have the Ursa destroy their nests (Given how the Ursa in "Forever Fall part 2" shows clear interest in Tree Sap). Looking up the behavior of bears and their diets made it clear that the Beedrill themselves would have made tempting food for the Ursa if they do indeed have appetites for anything other than humans.**

**As for the theory that Ursa have these massive diets to help grow faster, it's my attempt to explain why this species of Grim showed interest in eating anything other than humans (aka the sap in Forever Fall part 2). As well as the fact we see a few Ursa Majors before we see and Alpha Beowolf despite the fact that the Beowolfs are the most numerous type of Grim.**

**The Dark Imperial: Glad I piqued your interest, shame you lack faith in me. Then again at time of writing it says my last update was two months ago despite the update I made last month that more than doubled the size of chapter 4.**

**Jordanlink7856: I'm glad to hear I'm writing something that you've been waiting to read. Seriously thanks for giving me a review that lets me know what my readers like about this story. Thanks to you I now know that people who don't normally like aura Ash stories might actually like how Ash uses aura in this story. Makes sense now that I think about it. Ash would be way OC if you made him into a warrior monk like a Jedi Master or Aang from the last Air Bender. But Aura as it's presented in the World of Remnant, just makes Ash more of fighter. Something I think is easy to believe given that in Season One episode "The Punchy Pokémon" he gives Pikachu boxing advice like he's been an avid fan of the sport for some time. Which was one of the reasons I had him learn how to fight from Tai.**

**Now if you all excuse me I have my own reviews to write. There are some new side stories listed on the Pokémon Reset-verse TvTropes page and I bet their authors would like to get some reviews that point out what they really did well.**


	6. Aftermath and a Duel with a Samurai!

**AN: Been slowly working on stories while dealing with life. Thought I'd put this story up to let people know I'm still alive. I can't promise frequent updates, but I will definitely continue this story. Writing forces my imagination to consider more details and paint or more vivid picture in my mind of how the ideas I have would actually unfold.**

**Quick note on the last chapter, when Samurai mentioned Anima he was referring to the Eastern most continent on Remnant, not another land in yet another of CPL's stories.**

 

* * *

_Ok, just found out about this electronic journal hidden in my Pokedex. So I'm going to write down some important things here to help pass the time as Dexter continues on through the tutorial. Oh, Dexter is what I call my Pokedex's AI, sometimes I call him 'D' as well. Most of what the tutorial is saying is stuff I already know or could easily figure, that or technical details that go over my head. So I decided to try and do something to keep myself from falling asleep while Dexter goes on about functions I already know about. I'm, … fairly sure I'll notice anything new and important about the Pokedex when Dexter gets around to mentioning it, though Dexter gave me some snark for it. I suppose that's what I get for meddling around earlier when I turn on his snark setting without realizing it._

_Should probably mention the important events that happened recently. Woke up back home in Pallet, fought a Beowulf, and then repeated the start my journey. Running from the spearow flock, meeting Misty and team rocket went the same with some new details. What was really different this time was talking with Misty about these "Bloodliner" powers she now has, and the rampaging Ursa we had to take down with Samurai. Turns out Samurai also has visited Remnant and manage to come back to our world._

_I should have questioned seeing a Beowulf after I first woke back up in Pallet more. I was so glad to be back home and to know that all the people I cared about existed again, that I didn't stop to think about it. I suppose I just thought it was a single grim that pulled back with and that I wouldn't see anymore. That was naïve and wishful thinking on my part. From now on, me, my Pokémon, and whoever else is traveling with me will be sleeping in shifts in case something tries to creep up on us at night while we're outdoors. Something we should have probably started doing already given how much more dangerous wild Pokémon seem to be now._

_We're spending the night in Samurai's cabin after he offered to guide us as well as a safe place to sleepy for the night. As we made our way I vaguely mentioned I spent some time in Remnant, and Samurai spoke of his own adventure in Remnant. He spoke like he was telling a grand tale to an audience at a festival. To sum up his story, he stumbled upon something that sounded a lot like the vortex that transported me from Remnant back to home. Unfortunately for him, the moment he stumbled through he fell down a long, steep slope near a village around the time of a Grimm attack. Fortunately for him he met a huntsmen, or at least one in training, by the name of Cloud Strife. Cloud activated his aura to given him a better chance of survival, and the vortex thankfully remained open long enough for Cloud to help escort Samurai back to it. According to Samurai the vortex closed shortly after he crossed back into our world and he hasn't seen anything like it since then._

"And that concludes the introductory tutorial." The robotic voice coming out of the Pokedex stirred Ash from his writings. Ash looked up from where he laid on the couch to the wooden roof of the cabin as he let out a yawn. As his gaze came back down, he noticed the starry sky outside that reminded him of just how much time had passed since Dexter had begun only the first tutorial, which made Ash want to groan.

"I know I asked you to give me all the details, but couldn't you have skipped to the relevant features I could use Dexter?" the long list of technical details had went straight over his head and hadn't helped at all.

"You did say you wanted to know everything."

Ash looked up from where he was laying on a couch as he heard the door knob on the bathroom open and turned to see Misty in a loose fitting Tshirt that had the image of Lorelei on the front, a pair of shorts, a towel around her neck, and holding a toothbrush. She looked around the room before addressing Ash. "Did Samurai already turn in for the night?"

"Yeah, he must have been eager to sleep in his own bed after spending several nights sleeping outside on the ground. He's obviously camped out in the woods before, but it still takes some getting used to long stretches of camping between the occasional nights spent at an inn or Pokémon Center."

"That's fairly accurate, it took me a bit as well," Misty said while giving Ash a curious look. "I got to say, when you say stuff like that you kind of sound like a seasoned trainer who's been at this for a while."

"Yeah…" Ash exchanged a look with Pikachu who was laying on a pillow nearby. 'Should I tell her?' He thought to himself before gaining a serious look on his face. He set the Pokedex down as he sat up to face Misty. "Do you remember what Samurai said about the date being different when he got back?"

"Yeah adding further ridiculousness to his story. As if spending the day a in a different world with a man that unlocked some supernatural power of his soul wasn't hard enough." Misty sighed as she lifted her hands into the air, her body language seemed to scream 'How the heck am I supposed to deal with this.' "If it wasn't for how naturally you two talked to each other about that other world as a matter of fact, then I would have just written off the entire thing as crazy delusions."

"And would you believe it if I told you I already spent some time as a Pokémon trainer before winding up on Remnant? Or that when I found myself back in our world it was suddenly the day before I became a trainer?

"Seriously!?" Misty shouted. "Now I'm supposed to believe in time travel on top of everything else!?"

'Yeah that was the kind of response I was expecting.' Ash thought as he rubbed his head sheepishly as he mulled over what to say.

"Look Misty, I know you're still at some level of disbelief about all this, but I figured I should strike while the iron is hot and get that off my chest. You see, I knew you before. Which means I know various things about you without you being aware of it. I figured I should tell you about it now, rather than risking you finding out about it in the future and feeling like I had been dishonest with you somehow."

"Oh?" Misty's face morphed from disbelief to suspicious. "Why might I feel like you were dishonest with me?"

Ash put his hands up in a placating matter "Ah, well we seem to be starting off a lot better." Ash replied with a nervous smile. "To tell the truth, I was a little immature back then."

"Pika" 'A little' Pikachu cough sarcastically.

"Ok fine, I was a lot more immature than I am now. In the off chance you remembered anything like my Pokémon have so far, I didn't want you believing I was putting on an act this time around. I've just grown up a little since then."

Pikachu let out another cough.

"What? I said 'a little' didn't I?" Ash gave Pikachu a mock glare.

The glare was promptly ignored as the yellow mouse made a show of rubbing his chin in a thinking pose. After a few seconds Pikachu just shrugged its shoulders before curling back up on its cushion, causing Misty to let out a small giggle despite her overall disbelief with the situation.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Ash muttered before turning back to address Misty. "I just thought I should be honest and let you know. Whether you want to believe it or not is up to you. It won't be on my conscious anymore."

Misty gave a small frown while thinking it over for a second. "It sounds pretty unbelievable, but so does slaying a fairy tale monster. Let me sleep on it OK?"

"Sure thing"

"Speaking of sleeping, thanks for letting me have the guest room. You sure you don't mind spending the night on the couch?"

"I'll be fine. Sweet dreams Misty."

"Sweet dreams," Misty murmured softly. The memory of her and Ash dancing in kimonos from her dream flashed into her head. She swiftly turned away from Ash so that he wouldn't see the blush that was creeping onto her face. "Say Ash, in that time you say we supposedly spent together, did we ever attend a festival?"

"Quite a few actually. Why do you ask?"

"Well for starters," Misty looked over her shoulder back at Ash with a sly smile on her face. "I can now expect you to take me to a few." She happily walked off to the guest room without seeing the worried look that was on Ash's face as a chill ran up his spine as he remembered the princess festival, where he had spent all day holding clothes for Misty as she went from one sale to another.

* * *

[ A private office in Viridian City ]

Giovanni wasn't an overly optimistic man. Running a practical monopoly of Kanto's black markets had required him to operate on hard objective facts, harsh truths, and have plenty of contingencies in place if something went wrong. Such measures helped stop more than a few shares of rats and other unexpected surprises from snowballing out of control. With such a pragmatic mindset, he rarely expected pleasant surprises. So it was even more shocking when Jessie, James, and Meowth had contacted him with actionable Intel so soon after he had sent them off on their reconnaissance mission.

The screen Giovanni was looking at had just finished playing a segment of the local evening news, and was now showing a graph that displayed a rise in his approval ratings. Being so quick to identify a potential wild Pokémon threat and keeping it away from the city certainly reaffirmed the public's trust in his capabilities as Gym Leader. "It certainly is nice to be able to benefit from those three's surveillance so quickly." Giovanni commented, as he started to think back about how the event had unfolded.

The incident in the forest between the Beedrill and the unknown creature was a concern he had to address once Jessie, James, and Meowth had radioed in that the ruckus was getting closer to Viridian City. There would be a state of emergency if either the aggressive swarm or the unknown creature made their way into city. Naturally he would be expected to deal with it as the Viridian Gym Leader.

The info would be frightening to most. Giovanni wasn't most people though, he was a man who had built his career in part due to his ability to find and seize opportunities. It was the reason he had been able to grow his organization to where it was now. After he had received the three stooges report, he gathered up some of the tougher trainers studying at his gym and headed out. The positive PR Giovanni was getting good, but what was even better was the substantial amount of Beedrill that Rocket Grunts were able to easily pick off and capture in the confusion. Sure they were far from the most valuable, but still a relatively easy commodity to catch with the nets the rocket grunts were issued and the Beedrill being vulnerable out in the open instead of their guarded nest. Furthermore, the large dip in population numbers would be attributed to the incident and no one would suspect that poaching had occurred.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

"Come in"

"Here you go sir," Mattori said as she walked into Giovani's office.

She handed him a paper that at first glance looked like just another piece of fan mail that regularly came in through the public mailing address Giovanni had set up. The recipient in question took a moment to look over what at first glance seemed like a child's drawing of himself defending Viridian City from Beedrills. It was a rather normal occurrence to receive such drawing from children who stayed at orphanages that benefitted from his patronage/charitable tax deduction (Giovanni suspected the adults running said orphanages encouraged these drawing, and the businessman in him approved of this tactic). He then put on a special pair of reading glasses that let him see the preliminary report that was hidden on the paper, using a special invisible ink that Team Rocket R&D had developed. No one outside his inner circle at his Viridian Office had yet learned of this ink yet. Which means the police or anyone else who might show up to search his office, legally or illegally, wouldn't find any evidence that could be used against him. After all, who would think that the innocent, hand drawn, childrens'sdrawing he kept in his desk drawer was also the paperwork detailing various aspects of Team Rocket operations.

"We should wait till more Scientist weigh in, but it looks like the Beedrill population will recovery in time and there won't be a large impact on the forest. Good, that means we probably won't have to release any of the ones we captured." It seemed young Ash Ketchum had put an end to the mysterious new creature before it could damage the Beedrill beyond what they could recover from.

"I can only imagine how surprised the grunts would be if they heard that their boss was concerned about environmental impact." Mattori noted with mirth.

"They wouldn't if they knew of my stock and investments in Viridian City's tourism." Giovanni explained.

Giovanni returned his attention to the report. "We have quite the influx of Beedrill right now, enough to possibly equip quite a few squads of low level grunts." That many low level personnel and poison types would be able to effectively use hit and run tactics. Despite their effectiveness as a group, it would be inconsequential if a few grunts left the organization with them, or more foolishly tried to turn on Team Rocket. "Mattori, have some personal from the black market and operations divisions draw up a cost-benefit-analysis on selling our new assets vs equipping our grunts. I'll make a final decision based on the results of their report."

"Right away sir, anything else?"

"Nothing for now." As Mattori left, Giovanni returned his attention back to the papers he had been reviewing before the evening news came on. They were a report about the most recent details Jessie, James, and Meowth had sent in about their reconnaissance target. The young man was now traveling with a third trainer who seemed to prefer bug type Pokémon and, more oddly, wore samurai style armor. The three young trainers were overheard discussing how they had cut down the creature responsible for the upheaval in the forest. James noted how the two boys seemed to be oddly calmer about the ordeal then most would be given the situation given their age. The only time they seemed upset was when they lamented about the damage the unidentified creature had caused.

"Perhaps they're already able to understand the necessity of doing what has to be done?" Giovanni pondered out load. It would certainly explain why this Ash Ketchum didn't seemed to be perturbed about cutting down the beast. Even if it wasn't a human life, ending a life for the first time normally effects a personal mentally to some level. Unless of course young Ash saw the beast as a monster instead of a living being, though being raised in Pallet town and so close to Oak's ranch would have made that unlikely given town's reputation.

"First you stop a crime in progress when you happen to be at the scene when it occurred. Now you've gone out of your way when you heard there were either Pokémon in danger, or someone needed help." Giovani gather up the papers on his desk. He opened up his desk drawer, making sure to put the reports in the proper folders. He let a small smile grace his face as he put a paper in the folder marked "Ash Ketchum" in Team Rocket's invisible ink. "I'm getting the impression that if I want you to put out a fire for me, all I have to do is make sure you see the smoke." Giovani said before closing the drawer.

* * *

[ Viridian Forest, the next morning ]

The morning sun was shining, providing a gentle warmth for the inhabitants of Viridian Forest. Particularly two young trainers who set cross-legged as a Pikachu lay down nearby.

"You start by closing your eyes," Ash began. "Make no effort to control your breathing. Let it happen naturally. Focus on how your body naturally move when you breathe in and out. At first you'll only notice how the air flows in and out of your body. Then gradually you be able to pick up other things. The slight movements of your chest, shoulders, rib cage, and belly as they move with your body's natural flow and rhythm. If you keep working at it you should eventually be able to sense your own heartbeat. Then the flow of blood through your body. Then even subtle amount of aura that lies within, waiting to be used. Once you sense it, you can slowly but steadily work at trying to cultivate it"

"And then we will be able to unlock our semblances?" Samurai asked.

"Hopefully" Ash admitted with a note of longing in his voice. "I can vouch that this will help you slowly build up your Aura reserves over time and make it easier to call upon your aura. However, we need to remember that finding exactly what someone's semblance is can be very difficult. Some pro-huntsmen go their entire lives without ever discovering their semblance."

"How is it possible they could spend that much time on it and not find out what their semblance is?"

"It's possible that their semblances only happened under certain circumstances, or something else made it difficult to figure the semblance out." Ash said as he recalled the lessons Tai Yang had taught him. "A good example I was told, was to imagine someone with the semblance that let them breathe under water spent their whole life in a dessert. How likely would it be that they would even be in a situation that it would be possible to figure out there semblance, assuming they could do so the very first time there was any evidence of what it could be? Not to mention they would have to notice the abnormality when it happens to be able to have a chance to figure their semblance."

"I see" Samurai contemplated. "So one must apply constant diligence, so that when the sparse moment a clue to their semblance reveals itself, the chance to grasp what their semblance is doesn't pass them by."

"Assuming there actually is something to that spiritual mumbo jumbo you guys keep going on about." A certain orange haired trainer with wingull perched on her arm stated and she walked up.

"Hey Misty, how'd things go?" Ash asked.

"Tense but uneventful. I think letting out my two most recent captures out away from everyone else was the right choice given how tense the older one was." Not to mention how often Kabutops tend to stare daggers at nearly anything that wasn't her little Kabuto.

"It certainly must be a powerful new soldier you have recruited, given how you walk far enough away to be completely out of sight." Samurai commented.

"Oh, well, I just wanted be safe rather than sorry." Misty said a little sheepishly. 'By safe, I mean I wanted to make sure that if I had to use my bloodline to calm Kabutops down, you wouldn't see it.'

"Makes me wonder what it is." Ash voiced his thought.

"Well a girl has to have some secrets." Misty responded while seeming satisfied and a little bit smug.

Ash and Pikachu shared a look. She had been oddly happy when Ash had casually mentioned earlier that he didn't know what her new Pokémon could be other than perhaps a goldeen. That was the only other Pokémon he remembered Misty having that she hadn't let out of a Pokeball yet.

"Pika" 'Is this supposed to be her attempt at maintain that 'feminine mystic' as humans call it?'

Ash shook his head. "Nah, it's more like she happy it kind of contradicts what we talked about last night." Ash whispered to his pal. "She'd rather think I'm a Bloodliner just like her then a warrior who's trained to use the power of his soul. The fact that I don't know her exact roster supports her idea that I'm not sure what I'm talking about. Even if it only really contradict me saying I know about her due to time-travel shenanigans."

"Pi" 'Told you she wouldn't believe it.'

"It wasn't about her believing it." Ash admonished. "It was about being honest with her. Besides it'll make things easier if she does start to remember things."

"Hey, what are you two whispering about?" Misty asked with a suspicious look on her face.

"Nothing worth mentioning." Ash quickly responded with a nervous smile. "Anyway now that you're back you mind being the referee so that me and Samurai can have a quick match?"

The way the match had progressed had surprised Misty. Granted the first round had gone as she had expected when Ash's Pidgeotto used its type, speed, and mobility advantage to defeat Samurai's Pinsir. The fact that Pidgeotto had Gust and Pinsir didn't have any range attacks made it even more one side. The second round where both trainers had sent out metapods is where it started to get interesting. Much to Misty's relief it wasn't like her dream were the move harden was call out for what seemed to be hours on end. Instead it shook things up when Ash had his Metapod use String Shot to swing around into tackle attacks. Unfortunately Samurai's Metapod had a trick up its sleeve, specifically a move called Electro Web that Misty hadn't seen before. The move let Samurai's Metapod retaliate from a distance and exploited the fact that metpods were weaker against special attacks then physical ones. Once Samurai's metapod used it to catch and trap Ash metapod, the round was practically over. So now both trainers were tied with each having won one round. It was how they decided to conduct the third and final round that truly shocked Misty. "What do you mean you're not using your Pokémon for this round!?" Misty yelled from her referee spot to the side of the make shift field Samurai had in the backyard of his cabin.

"This is my first true opportunity at a bout with a fellow warrior, I'd be a fool to pass up the experience!" Samurai explained with enthusiasm. The hands griping his sword shook with excited anticipation. "Besides even we were planning on having a sparing session even if the winner had been decided within the first two rounds."

"Don't worry Misty, our aura means there's very little chance of us really getting hurt." Ash said waving off Misty's concern like her fears were completely unfounded.

"You know I haven't really come around to believe that stuff right!?" Misty yelled back. She could hardly believe what was happening right in front of her for crying out loud. "And I definitely don't want to be proven right by one of you two idiots getting hurt! For goodness sake Ash you're planning to use an old pair of gloves to fight against a sword" Misty said while dramatically pointing at the pair of Sir Aaron's gloves that currently covered Ash's fist.

"You don't have to worry, especially as we're about to prove that I'm right about aura." Ash confidently shot back. "There's a reason I handed you my Pokedex. Dexter explain the function I brought up."

"Certainly." The Podex's robotic voice called out. Misty looked down to the device in her hand. On its display there were two photos, one of Ash and one of Samurai. Next to each photo was a long green bar. "These gauges represent the aura reserves each combatant currently has." Flashing red outlines appeared around the bars to emphasize what was being explained. "As the fight is underway, the combatants' aura reserves will be steadily depleted over time to reduce and nullify bodily harm. Utilizing my sensors, I will monitor and actively display their Aura levels. The gauges will eventually turn yellow and then red. The fighter who first reduces their opponent's aura level into the red wins the match. It will be your job as the referee to then declare the match over and announcer the winner."

"See that's a function in the Pokedex I managed to find that's specifically used for a fight between two Aura users." It had completely surprised Ash when he found it. He was going to have to make a private call to professor Oak once he got to Pewter City. The fact that the Pokedex had such a function raised too many questions for Ash not to look into it later.

"Even if Professor Oak is a regional professor, there a chance he could have gone senile." Misty muttered though she looked very unsure about it. "OK fine, but you two have to promise me to stop the match immediately if I say so, for whatever reason."

"Sure thing." Ash said far too at ease for Misty's liking.

"I swear on my honor." Samurai said as he brought a hand up to his chest and gave a small bow.

Misty let out a long sigh "I really hope I don't regret going along with this." She then resolved herself and raised her right hand into the air while she held Dexter in her left. "OK get ready!" Both Ash and Samurai got into their respective stances. "Begin!" Misty yelled as she brought her hand down.

Samurai took a half step forward as he raised his sword and brought it down at Ash. Ash rose his left aura covered hand, and swiped the blade to his left. Only for samurai to use that momentum to change the position of the blade and then strike high at Ash's head with a horizontal slash.

"Hmph." Samurai smirked. "Gah!" Samurai cried out as Ash drove his right fist into Samurai's stomach, capitalizing on the fact that Samurai had risen his arms up to strike at Ash head. Samurai stumbled a few steps back as he took some deep breaths.

"Body armor like the kind your wearing disperse the force of strikes that would pierce or slash open flesh, which tends to cause sharp weapons to bounce off without breaking through" Ash said while gesturing to both the Samurai's traditional helmet and body plate that covered his chest and abdomen. "But like most armor it doesn't do much against attacks meant to deliver a high amount of blunt force." Ash explained while rubbing the part of his head that had been struck. "See Misty," he pointed at the area, "No blood, I told you my aura would protect me from harm."

'That or you really are that thick headed.' Misty mentally quipped as Ash and Samurai reengaged one another. Flashes of steel crashing against blue glowing fist that intercepted the strikes one after another. Both combatants remaining cautious as they tested each other's defenses.

'He's pretty comfortable using that sword.' Ash noted as he continued to block the Samurai's strikes. 'Every time I block or bat it aside, he uses the recoil to help quickly move the blade into position for another attack. Only now he's using that to keep me on defensive. ' Ash observed as Samurai continued to slash at him. He wasn't landing any clean hits, but he wasn't leaving any openings for Ash to exploit. 'He must be worried that if he extends to deliver a decisive attack like before he'll leave himself open for me to deliver another powerful strike.' Ash then noticed that Samurai's next strike was going to be another overhead vertical strike.

"Then let's try this!" Ash shouted as he rose his arms into the air to form an X block. Before Samurai could pull his sword away, ash opened up his palms, turned his hands inwards, and grabbed the blade. Ash smirked, "Gah!" before he felt Samurai drive his foot into Ash's stomach. Ash's hold on the sword slacked while it was his turn to gasp for breath. The Samurai tugged his sword free and delivered another powerful strike to Ash's head, this time forcing Ash to take a knee.

"You used a similar x shaped block to stop my blade when I tested your reflexes back when we first met. You didn't use your fists at that time, but I would have been a fool not to think of how to counter that kind of technique." Samurai explained. He took another swing at his opponent. Only for Ash to spring up to his feet. One hand pushing against the bottom of the hilt of Samurai's sword, pushing it up and out of the way. Ash used his other hand to deliver a hard uppercut to the bottom of Samurai's lower jaw.

The blow left Samurai wobbling on his feet as a ringing filled his ears from being clocked. It was impressive that his dominant right hand still held onto his sword even as both of his arms waved in the air in an effort to help him maintain his balance. Ash took advantage of Samurai being staggered to properly get on his feet then lower his center of gravity into a stance that Pikachu had seen only once before.

"Pika" 'That's' Pikachu manage to squeaked out as Samurai regained his bearings just as Ash started the onslaught of a Dempsey roll.

"You know." Ash stated before throwing a powerful right punch that threw Samurai off balance as Ash weaved to the left. "You had me for a moment," Ash threw a strong left punch and weaved to the right. "but you shouldn't," Right punch. "drop your guard," Left punch "until you know for sure," Right "your opponent," Left "is down" Samurai tried to bring his sword to bear "for the count," only for Samurai to finally drop it as a blow connected with the shoulder of the arm that was holding on to it.

"TIME OUT!" Both Ash and Samurai paused then turned to look at Misty. "Oh, um according to this Ash has won the match." Misty said while holding up the Pokedex. On the screen, Samurai's aura was shown to be in the red, while Ash's had "Winner" displayed in bold text by his.

Both Ash and Samurai dropped out of their stances to catch their breath. In Samurai's case that meant dropping to the ground on his knees where he took a couple of deep breaths. When he was done and looked back up to see Ash offering a hand to help him back onto his feet.

"Thanks for the great match." Ash said as he offered his hand.

"Anytime." Replied Samurai as he took the offered hand.

Off to the side of the field Pikachu was cheering next to Misty, who still look dumbfounded at how the third match had been carried out.

Samurai stood with Ash and Misty at the end of the forest. They were currently on a path that lead out of the forest. "This trail will lead you to Pewter City." Samurai said as he gestured to the rest of the trail as it lead out of the viridian forest.

"Thanks Samurai, but is there any reason you aren't coming with us. I thought you were aspiring to compete in the Pokémon League" Ash asked. "There gym a Pewter City after all, and it's nice to travel with good company."

"Unlike you my friend, I lack at confidence to go up against a gym were I would be at a type disadvantage. The time soon approaches for me to leave this forest and strike out on my own adventure. When that happens, I plan to first gain experience before performing the daunting task of challenging a gym where my bug Pokémon will be at a disadvantage. Regardless of where I go, I will work to perfect my techniques and one day we will meet again. Then I'll show you just how much I have improved."

"I'm sure it will be a most spectacular match." Ash replied. He was confident it would be something to look forward to.

Samurai gave a confident grin. "That is guaranteed."

"Hopefully when that happens you two won't resort to directly beating each other up." Misty sounded exasperated as she put her hands on her hips.

"Untill then Samurai." Ash called back as he and Misty started to walk down the path.

"See you" Misty waved. Pikachu also waved from his spot on Ash's shoulder.

"Farewell" Samurai returned with a wave of his own.

* * *

**AN: I skimmed over the first two rounds of Ash's and Samurai's battle because the matches would have been mostly one sided with little back and forth. I wanted to focus on trying to set up a fight that felt like it could take place in Beacon's combat class. I looked up some videos on basic katana strikes before I wrote this chapters fight. I decided to have Ash win their fight with a Dempsey Roll because A.) Why wouldn't Ash use it to end a fight the moment he saw an opening to use it. And B.) Should Samurai and Ash ever duel again, Samurai will now to look out for the Dempsey Roll. Which lead to a longer tougher fight in order for Ash to win.**

**ryubimaru: Thanks for helping point out that inconsistency so quickly. That's the last time I rush to meet a self-imposed deadline. Doing so clearly cause my writing to suffer.**

**jordanlink7856: Thanks for the much needed feedback. Glad to hear that the premise helps make this stick out from other Aura ash stories for some people.**

**ezok: Hopefully there won't be any further confusion that causes people to think I'm adding yet another franchise / universe. I'm glad we were able to clear that up in the PM. I still find it hard to believe that someone said they liked my version of the story more than the original. It's very flattering. Also thanks for telling me in the PM about how you like the way I'm writing Giovanni. His characterization was a big part of the challenge by CPL that lead to me writing this story, so it's satisfying to know that I'm doing that part right. Hopefully you like how I handled Samurai in this chapter, as well as in future chapters if I bring him back at some point.**

**Guest 1: Don't worry, I don't plan on stopping, though I have had to slow down a bit due to life.**


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